Pushing My Luck
by Blindy
Summary: Duo and the pilots get involved in one of their strangest missions yet...only this time, they're not taking orders from anyone.
1. Some People

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing at all. I know. Sucks to be me.

Author's Note: Here's a little something that I've been working on for a while. Not sure what direction it will take, but I will be working on it and posting new chapters pretty soon. If anyone has any suggestions for potential plot-lines, let me know. I'd love any little bit of creative insight that you all would be willing to give me. Let me know what you think please.

Pushing My Luck

"Heero..."

"Aa?"

"I'm bored."

"So?"

I rolled over and sighed. "So I'm bored."

His gaze never left the laptop. "So do something."

I punched my pillow. "There's nothing to do."

"Hn."

I rolled my eyes. I was feeling restless. I'd been cramped in this tiny dorm with Heero for a month now. School, shower, eat, take the occasional shit, sleep. No missions, no contact with the scientists, no trips around the globe with Deathscythe. This was really starting to get to me.

Then there was the fact that I'd been feeling off-key for quite a while. Like I was being watched, or observed. Trapped inside my own body.

Geez, this was becoming my very own private psychotherapy session. That only meant one thing.

Time to go out. Time to party.

Hell, it was Saturday night, and I knew for a fact that the bars were packed and the raves were pumping. I needed to get out of here, but I didn't feel like going by myself. And Heero wouldn't go for the idea. Well, I'd figure that out later. Maybe Quatre would go with me.

I stood and stretched, making up my mind in that instant that I would be going out and not returning until well after dawn.

I went into the bathroom and brushed my teeth, simultaneously pulling my hair out of its braid. Even over my scrubbing I could hear the laptop keys clacking away in the room. I wondered for a moment if Heero would even notice if I left. Probably not.

It wasn't a very comforting thought.

I spat into the sink and rinsed my toothbrush, replacing it upon the sink and grabbing a hairbrush. I pulled the brush through my hair and almost instantly hit a snag. Sometimes I wonder why I have such long hair. Really, it's just gives people the incentive to pull it in a fight, and boy, did people love taking that opportunity to fight dirty. God, what was next, bitch slapping?

I shook my head as if to clear it and finished brushing. Then I grabbed my hairband and began to rebraid. The swift, even movements of my fingers moving through the thick mass calmed me.

Back in the room I stripped down to my boxers after making sure that Heero's attention was firmly fixed on his laptop. It was. I imagined for a moment Heero ogling me as I got dressed in the next building with a pair of binoculars and a bag of chips resting on a protruding beer gut.

I rolled my eyes. Like he would ogle me. That was weird on so many levels. I could almost imagine it. Him approaching me with a whip in hand, dressed in a leather harness and wearing a hard hat, informing me in a husky voice that yes, the building was structurally sound, and was there anything else he could do for me?

Talk about hard core.

I pulled on a pair of well worn jeans and a rock t-shirt. I debated for a minute whether or not to take a jacket – it wasn't cold out, but it meant that I could carry a gun. I decided against it. It would just weigh me down, and being caught armed and possibly drunk on the streets, as much as it would amuse the guys, was not a really great idea. I've crashed in enough cells in my lifetime to quench my thirst for concrete floors.

I grabbed my wallet and shoved it in my back pocket. While I was pondering whether I'd forgotten to take anything, Heero spoke suddenly, causing me to flinch. God, I am such a pussy sometimes.

"Where are you going?"

I grinned. "Downtown. A lot of parties going off tonight, and this dorm room is driving me crazy."

"I'll go with you."

His response would have knocked me flat on my ass had I not been such a quick witted individual. Instead, I just managed to tangle my legs together and collapse onto the bed in undignified heap.

"What?"

"You heard me." The computer screen went abruptly black. "I'll come with you."

I struggled to stand and succeeded on the second try. Point for me. "Why?"

He shrugged. "Keep you out of trouble."

I scoffed at the idea. "Me? In trouble? Come on."

He stood and turned toward me with one eyebrow raised. "Let's go."

I sighed internally. There would be no stopping him now that he'd made up his mind. "Alright, but I don't want to have to babysit you the entire night."

He put on a shoulder holster and slipped his gun into it, putting a light jacket on over it.

I raised an eyebrow pointedly. "You're going out like that? Packing heat?"

"Yes," was his one word response. Damn, I hated it when he answered me like that. He continued suddenly. "Aren't you?" The fact that he'd not only actively participated in the conversation, but had also done so in a way that would ensure a response from me and continuation of the conversation amazed me. Maybe he wasn't such a robot after all...

I recovered from my initial shock quickly and winked. "Not a chance. Drunk and disorderly and armed does not a happy evening make."

He rolled his eyes and turned to leave.

Predictable.

I sighed and followed him as he soundlessly exited our dorm room. Creeping behind him, I was careful to "control myself", as Heero so fondly put it when I refrained from fucking something up.

Like everything was my fault...geez. Some people.

Once we reached the front of the building, it was my time to shine. I successfully picked the lock after only ten seconds of fumbling in the dark, and we crept out into the night. I looked over at Heero, who nodded without looking back at me, and we started off.

I stifled a giggle. Heero was in what Quatre and I liked to call "mission mode". We'd laughed at it over several post-mission tea parties (well, really, drinking binges), and it never seemed to get old. While "mission mode" had gotten him out of several rather hostile situations, he still hadn't quite come to the realization that, in the civilian world, it was actually pretty damn useless.

I rolled my eyes and kept my sarcastic comments to myself. And they say I have no self control. Wouldn't want to make the Perfect Solder any more pissy than he already was. Heaven forbid the one and only Heero Yuy should be irritated or made uncomfortable in any way.

Okay. So maybe I was a little pissed that he was tagging along.

After all, it was supposed to be _my_ night out.

I sighed and grimaced, quickening my pace to keep up with Heero. The fluorescent lights in the distance were becoming bigger and brighter with each step we took. Hopefully, I'd manage to lose Heero in the crowd. He was a big boy; he'd find his way home, no trouble.

Something was niggling in the back of my mind, though. Why did I _really_ want to lose Heero?

Because he was a pain in the ass, and was bigger, stronger and faster than me which meant that he thought he could tell me what to do. Oh, and he was really cramping my style.

A voice in my head whispered, _You're just jealous that the chicks are going to like him better..._

I scratched behind my ear grumpily. I was _not_. Why would I be? Heero had to carry a gun with him everywhere, and if that didn't scream "compensation issue", then what did? I mean, really -

My thoughts were cut off by the fact that I had just run into something unmistakably solid and unforgiving. I stumbled back briefly and managed to steady myself before I started to look even more spastic. Looking up, I saw exactly what it was that I had run into. Oh.

Heero.

Heero cocked his head at me, confused, and I held up a hand before he could speak. Not that I thought he was going to speak. "You should look before you stop in front of someone like that," I mumbled grumpily, straightening my shirt out and dusting the invisible dirt off of it. Me, jumpy? Ha.

"Sorry," he said, not really sorry at all. "Just checking to see that you're still here."

I shrugged grumpily. "Whatever. Hey man, let's just go, okay? You have your fake ID on you, right?"

He looked puzzled. Something inside me withered up and died on the spot. I sighed. "You don't have a fake ID, do you?"

He shook his head. "I have no need for such paperwork," he said, setting off again.

"Whoa...whoa! Heero," I said jumping in front of him with an outstretched arm and hoping he wouldn't just mow me down, "you can't get into bars without ID. They're real touchy about that sort of thing."

He shrugged. "I can manage myself." He pushed past me and kept walking.

I clenched my fists together. This was _exactly_ what I'd wanted to get away from, and here he was, following me around town, ruining the only time I got to spend alone.

I sighed and jogged to catch up to him. It wasn't his fault that he sucked at normal-people stuff.

By the time I caught up to him, he was at the entrance to one of the best clubs in the city, and pushing his way to the front of the line. God, he was gonna get his ass kicked tonight.

I stumbled up beside him just as he got to the two giant guards at the door. They crossed their arms and looked down at us in union. Oh boy, was I done feeling sorry for Heero and his lack of people skills. He was just downright stupid. These guys were going to kick our asses.

Then, to my utmost surprise, one of the guards nodded and let him pass. He didn't even look back toward me, or do anything to acknowledge my existence, for that matter. And when the gaze of the security guards fell upon me, I hastily pulled out my little ID card, hoping to hell that I wouldn't get beaten up or have the cops called on me.

One of them leered at me while the other studied the card. "Are you sure you're twenty-one?" the first one asked, licking his lips and probably thinking some thoughts that I didn't really want to know about.

I collected myself and nodded as confidently as was possible under the circumstances.

The guy with my ID all but scratched his head and I held back a chuckle. Look at the funny gorilla...

"When's your birthday?" he asked as if trying to catch me off guard. I promptly rattled off the date on the card he was holding.

When he saw that I was right, he looked at his pal. "He's right." I resisted shaking my head. Making them look stupid was not a smart thing for me to do. Letting them know I _knew_ they were stupid wasn't a good move, either.

His buddy looked at the card and then looked at me. "Yeah, but what if he memorized the date? That's what they do, you know." He eyed me suspiciously. "How do we know you're not lying?" he asked.

I raised an eyebrow. "Because I'm not."

"Oh." He blinked and looked at the other guard, who shrugged. Then he nodded. "You're in."

I grabbed my ID card back and rolled my eyes. Thank God.

Pushing my way past the people blocking the dark corridor, I kept my eyes peeled for Heero. Who knew where that geek had disappeared to, and I couldn't wait to get my hands on him and tell him exactly what I thought of him leaving me to the mercy of the jolly green giants.

I shook my head and tried to relax.

Music pulsated through the floor and lights flashed as the beat of trance music left my teeth clattering.

Bodies were pressed hard up against one another, and after a few minutes, I decided to let Heero find me on his own. At the bar I grabbed a beer and joined the forest of limbs as they waved wildly in the breeze of the beat.

* * *

I danced for what seemed like hours, letting people brush up against me, sway with me. I know for a fact that at one point I started making out with some girl that I'd been dancing with. It wasn't so much that I wanted to get laid, although it would have been nice. It just seemed like the thing to do after dancing with her for a while; the next step to take without taking it too far. Anyway...she was cute and all, and I wasn't really sure how I'd started kissing her. I guess it was because she was there. It was the buzz and the music and the alcohol.

But as always, after a while she drifted off into the sea of people and I started to wind down.

Checking my watch, I decided that it was time to move on. It was almost two in the morning. The really crazy places opened around that time, and I didn't want to miss them.

Just as I began sauntering toward the door, I stopped short with an inaudible sigh.

Heero.

I spun on my heel and glared at the crowd before me. He could have been anywhere. I hadn't seen him since he'd waltzed through the door and left me to deal with Hubba and Bubba.

A mental debate ensued.

I could leave Heero and go party elsewhere, ensuring that I would feel guilty enough to put up with his shitty mood for the rest of the week.

That would suck.

Or I could find him and just go home now. It would be easier than baby-sitting him for the rest of the night.

Fuck.

Heero Yuy was not easily baby-sat.

I sighed and began to scan the room for signs of Mr. Spandex Ass. Through the tight leather asses and naked stomachs and fishnet breasts I searched, but to no avail.

He'd vanished.

I leaned against one wall to think, nodding my head to the beat of a new song that had started up. I knew that he'd eventually find me. After all, I had yet to be deserted by him for real. So I waited, and with every moment that passed I felt myself getting even more angry and more tense. I could have been out on the town by now, but no...here I was, a sitting duck, a wallflower, just waiting for my buddy to show.

Talk about the life of the party.

Suddenly, a hand gripped my shoulder and I spun, reaching for a weapon that I was not currently carrying. I yelped, but it was as manly as a yelp can get, and spun around to face my attacker.

Guess who.

I grabbed Heero's sleeve and began to lead him out of the club like a parent who just caught their kid eating elephant crap at the zoo.

Oh boy, was I pissed.

Once we got back outside I let go of his sleeve and cursed.

"Where the fuck were you?"

He shrugged. "I was inside, observing."

I stopped short. "Why?" I asked.

His expressionless eyes caught mine. "I'm here to keep you out of trouble, remember?"

I threw my hands up in the air, exasperated. "Great. Just great! So, you were there watching me the entire time while I was there, thinking about how I'd lost you and wondering how many of your bullets my skull could hold. Fantastic!"

Facing him again, I saw that he hadn't moved. I did, however, notice the corner of his mouth twitch just a little bit, and if I hadn't known better, I'd have thought he was trying not to smile...like he'd been fucking with me...God, give me patience...

But hell. No one really _knew_ Heero. Maybe he just had a facial tic or something.

I shook my head, feeling suddenly exhausted. "Let's go back to the school. I'm tired of partying." It wasn't entirely true, but really, what had sucked the energy out of me was being mad at Heero. It takes a lot of effort to stay mad at someone if they don't throw you back any energy to work with.

We began the long trudge back to the school and I remember thinking that this night had been one of the weirdest as far as Heero-shit went. Then again, he was one weird dude.

I snorted at the thought of Heero being labeled as "weird". Most people would have described him as anything but. An outstanding student, excellent marksman, intelligent young man...but then again, that was most people.

Most people wouldn't have added Gundam pilot to the list.

And being a Gundam pilot was what made us all weirder than most.

Damn it. I shifted my hands around in my pockets as I walked. That brought be back to thinking about Deathscythe, and the fact that there were no missions. And that just made me feel uncomfortable. Like something was very off-key.

Something was missing...

Suddenly, something bolted out in front of us. I flinched, and so did Heero. We looked around wildly for one confused moment before relaxing a little bit. Nothing was there.

"See that?" I asked quietly, calmly. Something was here, and it was watching us.

He nodded, obviously seeing no need to reply aloud. He was probably thinking along the same lines as I was.

My eyes searched the darkness before us, lingering on every shadow and dark patch of air. A dash of movement in my peripheral vision caused me to swivel my head, but I missed whatever was there.

Heero seemed to be having the same problem. After several minutes of trying to sort out the dark shapes around us, I took his hand and squeezed it. _Time to go._ He understood. We began to walk forward together, steadily. We both knew that whatever was there would probably stop us if it really wanted to, but hell...can't blame us for trying.

We hadn't taken ten steps when a large, tall form swept out in front of us. I nearly had a heart attack but held my ground; I assumed an attack position and Heero already had his gun out and aimed at whatever was in front of us...but it was already gone.

Before I knew it, it was behind us. Damn, it was fast. Like, super-human fast. I felt myself break out into a sweat as I spun around, only to find an empty space behind us. What was going on?

It was as if all of my fears had converged into this one moment of horror. This was what all those nights of worrying had been leading up to...all those tingly moments of uncertainty as we'd waited week after week for a mission to come through.

This was it, and I had no idea what _it_ was.

I felt it moving in on us, closing in on us.

I couldn't move.

I couldn't breathe.

I was powerless, and I hated it.

Heero was beside me, saying something in that low-pitched growl of his, but I couldn't hear him. I could only hear the blood rushing in my ears and the sound of my heart pumping ever so slowly. I turned to face him and saw his facial expression change to one of surprise as his eyesight focused on something right behind me, right over my shoulder.

I turned to look as if in slow motion and felt a sharp pin-prick in my neck.

Damn it.

I shook my head and whipped around, but the world was moving entirely too slowly now to be real. Something was very, very wrong.

My vision began to fade out and I lost sight of Heero, but little bits of my hearing came back in between the steady rhythm of my pumping blood. I could hear little words that Heero was uttering but I couldn't string them together in an order that made sense.

I was lost.

I felt myself sinking deeper and deeper into oblivion and a hand resting heavily on my shoulder.

And it was dark.


	2. Just So We're Clear

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing. I do not own ANYTHING. No assets. Just pure, untainted desire.

Author's Note: This chapter was hard to write but fun! I hope it's consistent with the tone of the first. One thing I'd like to add is that this chapter is set during the period of time in the show when no one knew what Zechs' true identity was...that's something the pilots will be discovering at a later point in the story. I'm also considering changing the name of this story...it doesn't really seem to work. Suggestions? Anyway, enjoy, and don't forget to review!

Chapter 2

"Fuck..."

I heard a voice speaking in the darkness of my mind. It took me a few seconds to recognize the voice as my own. Bummer. When I woke up with a curse on my lips, it was a sure sign that the day was going to suck.

I cracked an eye open to see if it was safe to come out and play. In front of me I saw a table...no, more like a cart. It was one of those ones that looked like they were from room service at a fancy hotel. The surface beneath me was soft and comfortable. Like a bed.

I closed my eyes again. I didn't want to get up. I didn't know where I was, but I was warm, safe, and more importantly, not in any immediate danger. So why would I want to get up and give the circumstances a chance to change? Let fate kick me in the balls once again? No, thanks.

I sighed, and came to the realization that I was a gigantic wuss.

I was Gundam pilot, for fuck's sake! I had no reason to be afraid. And I had a war to fight, which meant that I needed to get up sooner or later. My happy little cocoon of a world was about to open up.

My stomach rumbled and I knew that it _definitely _wouldn't let me go back to sleep.

The decision was made.

I sat up slowly, remembering the sharp pin-prick of the night before, and waited for any after effects of the drug to kick in. My head was clear and my vision was fine. I was balanced. No after effects. Fantastic.

I stood and stretched, feeling the soft carpet scrunch under my feet. The room was actually pretty nice, for being my supposed prison and all. The walls were covered with a soft cream color that really offset the gold weave in the bedspread and the neutral colors in the carpet. I noted that the bed was a four poster bed and nodded, impressed. The wood stain on the bed matched the other wood furniture in the room perfectly. By other wood furniture, I mean one chair and a dresser, which, upon inspection, was totally empty.

Guest room? I thought not.

On the walls were these wrought iron designs that turned out to be light fixtures, and a couple of really nice abstract paintings. At least, they looked nice. I've never been much of an art critic. Abstract was abstract, right? You splatter paint, it looks funny, you sell it...that's it...

Okay, so maybe just a few artists would strongly disagree...

The only thing left for me to examine was the cart sitting beside the bed, the one I'd seen when I'd first opened my eyes. I padded over to it. It was shiny and silver, like an oversize dinner platter.

I reached forward and opened it...

This was the best prison _ever_!

I stood, my mouth agape at the selection of food inside. Bacon, eggs, ham, steak, fruit, bread...and those were the few things that I actually recognized. The rest was exotic and foreign to me.

I debated for a moment whether or not I wanted to eat the array set out before me.

It could be poisoned. Extremely old-school, but by all means, possible.

But then again, if they'd wanted me dead, they could have just come in and shot me. The only way I could have been more helpless was if I'd had my arms and legs cut off and set in a Jello mold. They'd also gone to some effort to capture me alive. Maybe they were just being hospitable?

Maybe.

But that didn't mean they were nice. If they were really nice, they wouldn't have had to drug me to get me here...

My stomach rumbled and I finally gave in and began stuffing my face.

Sitting on the bed, going through the selection of fruits and meats and cheeses, my mind was a whirlwind. Who the fuck were these people? Why was I here and why was I being treated so nicely?

And where was Heero?

Whoa. Heero. I hadn't even managed to freak out about him yet.

Still, that wasn't about to wreck my feast. I lay back on the bed, banana in hand, and began to imagine a hundred and one impossible scenarios where Heero was being killed, tortured or mentally shattered into a thousand pieces.

And people said I needed a hobby.

I sat for a few minutes, going over the scene from last night in my head. I knew for a fact that they'd gotten me before they'd gotten Heero, whoever _they_ were. I knew, because I remembered Heero's voice in my ear as I'd blacked out.

Why had I wanted to go out that night? I could have just stayed home and bought some liquor for Quatre and me to drink. But no. I had to go out into the big bad world and get my ass hauled into the only jail cell good enough to be featured on Martha Stewart.

A door opening cut my thoughts off and I launched myself to my feet, ready to defend myself, if need be. Or at least attempt to do so.

A tall, graceful woman entered. She was well dressed, in what I would have called a military uniform, only I'd never seen one like this before. She was, to say the least, statuesque. Her hair was a dark red, like an Irish red, that hung over her shoulders in graceful curls, and her eyes were a deep green. She was, to say the least, beautiful.

She was also staring at me and had a gun in her hand.

Oops. Guess that meant I didn't want to fuck around with her.

"Duo Maxwell." She directed her gaze at me, and I suppressed the question of how she'd known my name the moment it sprang to my tongue. No need to sound impressed.

I nodded and grinned. "That's me." She did not return the smile, and her cold eyes pierced mine as she bowed at the waist. She seemed vaguely familiar, but then again, we had a lot of enemies, and she could have been any one of them.

"My name is Helena Windoran. My Lord requests your presence. He says that it is vital that you attend this meeting with him. If you refuse, we shall have to take other..." she paused for effect, I think, "...measures."

I shrugged and my smile widened as I put a wall up behind my eyes. No need to let her know exactly how close I was to pissing my pants. After all, these people had already showed me that they played tough, and I had a feeling that being a snot would not bode well for me.

"Will my partner be attending this meeting?" I asked, assuming that she knew who he was.

She nodded. Of course. "He is waiting for you there. I will show you to the conference room."

I nodded, the smile still plastered on my face, while my heart leaped with joy. He was alive. If anyone could get us out of this, he could. "Let's go, then," I said calmly and she nodded and turned, leading me out into the adjoining hall.

As we stepped out of the room, the door shut as if someone had pushed it closed, and the air temperature dropped about ten degrees. I also noticed that the scenery wasn't as nice as it had been in the room – the walls were made of grey stone, the floor of concrete and the ceilings, which had metal pipes running along the corners, were made of metal sheets. Dim lights illuminated the way every so often as we marched along the corridor.

This was some seriously weird shit.

"You guys decorate all this yourselves?" I asked, one eyebrow raised.

She ignored my question. Shit. No sense of humor, either. I was in deep trouble.

Suddenly, Windoran stopped short in front of what appeared to be large steel double doors. She pushed a button on the wall and the doors slid aside to reveal an elevator. It was carpeted and had wood paneling on the bottom and mirrors on the top. The elevator was slightly warmer than the hallway we were in, and I caught a few notes of what sounded like music. Elevator music. Oh, lord, just shoot me now.

I raised an eyebrow at Windoran, unable to help myself. "Nice," I commented.

She ignored my comment and stared straight back at me. "He is waiting for you upstairs. I can go no further with you." She nudged me into the elevator and pressed on the button on the outside wall once again. She remained silent as the doors closed.

The elevator jerked and started moving upward. I leaned against one of the walls and sighed. I felt like I'd just been screwed over royally, but I had no one to blame yet. I hated having no one to blame. It made me feel downright pissy.

I leaned forward toward one of the mirrors on the sides of the elevator and flashed myself a grin. Spotting a little crumb of whatever-the-hell stuck between my molars, I wedged a fingernail into the crack and tried to dislodge it. After several attempts, I finally succeeded. Alright, go me. I leaned in closer and began to stare at my teeth. I came to the realization that they were pretty damn straight and generally in good condition. I ran my tongue over them and took note of the soft underside of my tongue, then began looking at the top of it and I was just starting to check out my taste buds...boy, I sure had a lot of those...

A sudden ding brought me back to reality and I straightened, licking my lips as if trying to discard some sort of evidence. Right.

I straightened and turned back toward the doors, waiting for them to open. And waiting. And waiting...

"Ahem."

I jumped and spun around. The doors had opened on the other side. Oh.

Trying to soothe my jumpy nerves, I stepped out of the elevator to face a man with short, dark hair and deep blue eyes. He, too, was dressed in the same type of uniform that Windoran had been wearing, but I had a sneaking suspicion that he was a higher rank. His stance was perfect, even elegant. He was, of course, at least a foot and half taller than me, which pissed me off even more, but I held my tongue. He motioned for me to sit at a large wooden table in the middle of the room, with a rust red plush rug lying under it. Glancing down, I saw that the floors, while made of concrete, held a sort of smooth edge that made you want to walk barefoot on them. They just looked that good.

But when I took a look around me, I had to suppress a gasp of surprise. The walls were made of dark tinted glass, and through that glass, I could see the city around and below us...at least a hundred stories below us. It was a breathtaking sight, and I almost didn't notice Heero because of it.

Heero. A weight instantly lifted off my shoulders as I saw him sitting before me in a black leather chair, looking at me stonily as always. The prick.

I redirected my gaze to our host who had not moved one iota and had waited pleasantly for me to get over my initial shock. He bowed to me and spoke. "My name is Anthony D'leur. You have been invited here today to discuss certain issues which I can only hope you will take into strict confidence."

For some reason, I had the feeling that I wanted nothing to do with these issues, but I figured it would be a good idea to humor him and take a seat until I could think of a better plan.

I pulled up a chair next to Heero. He didn't even look at me, and I made no attempt to make eye contact with him.

Anthony pulled up a seat across from us and folded his hands over the glossed surface of the table. I couldn't help but get the feeling that, like Windoran, we'd met before. I didn't have much time to give it thought, though, because he began talking and today of all days, I decided to actually listen. Fancy that.

"I've called you both here today to speak with you about something extremely important to both my organization and yours."

I raised an eyebrow. Somehow, I highly doubted this. I opened a mouth to protest, but Anthony held a hand up and stopped me before I could speak. "I would appreciate if you would let me finish before interjecting with your own thoughts, Mr. Maxwell."

My mouth snapped shut. Mr. Maxwell? The name sounded strange to even my own ears. I'd never been a mister to anybody.

Anthony continued talking. "There is a group in the city that has come to our attention. Now, before you respond by saying that that's _our_ problem," his gaze lingered on me for a moment, "consider that we also have evidence that this group is planning an attack on the entire city – this city, in which you are currently residing. Not helping us would be, needless to say, a very bad move." He sat back and smiled politely as if he'd just beaten me at a game of Bingo.

I blinked and saw Heero open his mouth out of the corner of my eye, but I beat him to it. "Why us?"

Anthony leaned back, eying me carefully. "Because you are a group of soldiers well known to our organization and we believe that you are the best suited for this mission, at least, on such short notice."

I leaned forward and rested my hands on the tabletop, which, oddly enough, felt like it was made of glass. "By 'group of soldiers' you don't mean just Heero and me?" I asked, not liking where this was going at all.

His answer came crisply. "That's correct."

I stared at him for a moment before leaning back in my chair. "And it's just based on our combat skills that you've chosen us?" If this was true, it was seriously bad news for us. No one was even supposed to know who we were yet. Still, this guy, Anthony, looked familiar. Maybe we'd encountered him on the battlefield.

Anthony nodded. "Your fighting skills far surpass those of the average soldier. We believe you to be ideal."

Heero spoke for the first time, forcing me to remind myself that he wasn't just a mannequin. I was still pissed at him though, so I decided not to acknowledge him by making eye contact of any kind until we'd left the building. Assuming we were allowed to leave the building.

"Who are you?"

Oh. I knew I'd forgotten to ask _something_.

"We are an organization that does not wish to see the destruction of this city come to pass, Mr. Yuy." Anthony smiled charmingly at him; it was a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "We do many things, and are, in a way, involved with OZ. We do not, however, report to them. We merely co-exist with each other. Usually." His expression became suddenly grim. "We believe, however, that this group that is posing such a threat to the city is involved with them, so we have no way of asking for their help this time. We also know of five individuals who are capable of confounding the OZ organization without revealing their identities. These qualities combined make you the five perfect candidates."

I grabbed the conversation back by asking the next question. "Okay, but why should we help you?" I'd really been intending to ask "why the hell" but pissing this guy off did not seem like a good idea until we knew exactly where he stood.

Anthony directed his gaze back toward me. "Because if you don't, your location data and your identities will be revealed to OZ – I do believe that is something that would work very well against you this early in the war."

"Is that a threat?" I demanded, rising out of my seat toward the challenge.

Anthony stayed calm and spoke softly, without making eye contact. "Yes. It is."

Something in his tone left me disconcerted. "Oh," I said, slumping back into the chair. "Just so we're clear."

Heero shot me a look that screamed in disapproval but I refused to return his gaze. I had bigger problems than His-Pissy-Highness right now.

We couldn't let these people expose our identities...any opportunity for future secrecy would be blown if they had our posters planted all over the globe. We didn't know how much they knew about us yet, but they knew our profession, where we were staying and at least two of our names, Chances were, they knew a lot more than we were willing to bet on. It wasn't like OZ would never find out who we were, but we had to at least try and keep our identities a secret for as long as possible. We weren't ready to change tactics yet.

At this point, I knew that Heero and I would have a serious discussion ahead of us, and that there wasn't any way to back out of this that wouldn't screw us over. Luckily, I had a stall tactic ready.

"We need to speak to the other pilots before we can answer you. And we need some more information about this group before we make any decisions. What kind of plan do they have and who are they? And what evidence can you present that will convince us?" I raised both eyebrows at him and waited for his reply.

Anthony stood abruptly and pressed a button on the table in front of him. Huh. Big-shots always got the coolest toys.

"Would you please bring in test subject X-104?" His voice was calm and clear. It was actually rather soothing, if you forgot for a moment that he had just threatened out existence. And if you ignored the fact that he'd just asked for a test subject to be brought into the room.

Suddenly, I was a little jittery.

Anthony moved over toward the double doors and opened them, making way for a large cart to be wheeled in. A sheet was draped over whatever lay on top of the cart, and whatever it was, it sure was people-shaped.

Until now I'd remained seated, but as Anthony gestured to us we both rose and walked slowly over to him and his "test subject".

He peeled the sheet back to reveal the head of what what appeared to be a deceased – my eyes glanced downward, because you can never be sure these days – male.

I shrugged. "Is this your scare tactic?" I asked with a smirk. Heero's shoulder bumped into mine. Coincidence? I think not. I ignored him and set my attention firmly on Anthony.

He raised an eyebrow at me, and effectively ignored my question by pointing to the mouth of the creature and smirking. I heard the snap of latex as he put on gloves, and I almost shuddered as he reached toward the body and pried the lips apart.

It was gross, yeah. I wasn't used to gore at this close range – chopping people up in a mobile suit is considerably different. Then again, just because I wasn't used to it didn't mean I couldn't handle it.

I just didn't want to, that was all.

After I'd gotten over _that_ little mental tantrum, I turned to look at what was so interesting about a dead man's mouth.

At first it just looked like a normal mouth.

Ha. Psyche.

As I looked closer, I saw that the canine teeth were elongated to the point of ridiculousness.

"What the..." I muttered, cutting myself off before my foul mouth could get me into trouble.

Heero responded with his usual, "Hn."

Anthony nodded. "Those teeth were not implanted at any point in time – they grew there naturally."

I shrugged. "Okay, so that's a little creepy. But how many people have strange characteristics these days? There are probably people who have extremely, freakishly long teeth."

Anthony nodded. "That's what I thought." He paused. "Until I reviewed the other hundred and thirty seven bodies that rolled in with the same traits."

I blinked, unable to keep the surprise out of my voice. "Wow."

"Yes." Anthony cleared his throat before continuing. "Oddly enough, the blood content of their body was low to the point of absurdity. The strangest part is that each individual was born over two hundred years ago, which we found out from their dental records...but as you can see from this body, there is no visible decomposition. From this we were able to draw one unmistakable conclusion." He sighed. "This one will wake up soon," he said softly, almost as if to himself. "I need to send him back."

I jerked back involuntarily, speechless for a moment. I wasn't sure I was really grasping what was going on here.

He closed the body's mouth and raised the sheet to cover the head once again. A masked guard came to haul the cart away. Anthony then shut the door and sat back down at the table as if nothing had happened. "These are the people that are trying to destroy mankind, starting with this city. The people we need your help to stop." He stripped off the latex gloves and threw them into what I assumed was a waste basket under the table, out of my sight range.

I, meanwhile, was still standing at the doorway and having a major brain crisis. We'd just been shown a body that definitely was _not_ human and we were expected to save the city from an unknown force that either consisted of or had the help of many un-human things like the one we'd just seen. Oh, and OZ. Couldn't leave them out.

Oh, crap.

All of these pieces were beginning to come together in my head, and I sat down hard when I came back to my seat.

Anthony smiled politely. "Has my proposition become any clearer to you?"

Heero surprised me by speaking up. "Yes. May we take this back to the other pilots for discussion, Mr. D'leur?"

Our host rose from his chair. "Colonel, D'leur," he corrected Heero. "But of course. I will grant you a week to think it over with your comrades. When your time is up, instructions will be sent to you so that we should meet again." He bowed gracefully, and Heero and I, after bowing back – because we're just polite like that, I guess – stood to follow him back to the elevator doors.

I was pissed now, not just at Heero, but at Anthony. He'd brought us in here and used scare tactics to get us exactly where he wanted us. Even so, I wasn't stupid enough to piss off the guy. I know power when I see it, and he seemed to have a considerable amount. I knew I'd have to wait until we got back to the dorms before I was allowed to have my routine hissy-fit.

Ok, so I couldn't wait. Before stepping into the elevator in front of us, I turned back to Anthony. "Thanks for the hospitality," I said neutrally. "But don't expect to bully us into doing this just because you may or may not have valuable information on us." I stepped into the elevator beside Heero and turned back to face Anthony before the elevator doors closed, interested in what his reaction would be.

He nodded and bowed.

"Power is an illusion, Mr. Maxwell, as is luck. One would hope that you are not foolish enough to take either for granted."

The doors closed.

For some reason, Anthony's response had put me off balance, and it made me mad. So mad that I forgot about wanting to kill Heero for the moment.

When the elevator finally stopped, I was a bundle of nerves. I've never liked sharing tight spaces with anyone, especially when I was feeling trigger-happy, and this was no exception. When the elevator doors opened, relief blossomed inside of me. It was strangely light, and I realized that it was the sun shining down on us. The elevator actually came down to the street. As I turned, I watched the doors close and the seam disappear into the wall as if it had never been there in the first place. I should have been totally weirded out, but considering everything else, all I could do was blink stupidly and shrug.

I stretched and blinked until Heero pushed me forward and started walking beside me back toward the school.

I sighed. "Man, what a waste of a Sunday." I was suddenly tired. What I really wanted was a nap. That's right. A nice little twelve hour nap. I knew it wasn't going to happen, but hey, a guy can dream.

In fact, I was suddenly so happy to be out of that death trap that I wasn't even that mad at Heero anymore. Any anger that I still felt for him could be dealt out to him in the form of unusual pranks and practical jokes.

Heero spoke beside me, killing my pitiful little train of thought. "We have a problem."

I snorted. "You mean you were paying attention, too, Captain Obvious?"

He ignored me. "That body," he continued, "it was - "

"I know what it was," I said, cutting him off. I didn't want to say it, but something inside of my head made me.

"It was a vampire."


	3. Productive My Ass

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing at all. I know. Sucks to be me.

Author's Note: Here we go...chapter three!!! Been working on this one for a while, getting up the courage to post it. Hope you all like it. They go back into the belly of the beast. Hah. Not telling anymore. Have fun. Review!

Pushing My Luck

"You've got to be joking. There's no such thing. You fell for a cheap trick."

I rolled my eyes as Wufei continued to chew me out. Taking another sip of my coffee, I rubbed my eyes lazily, wishing with all my heart that I was back in bed.

Bleagh.

"Okay, man, I get what you're saying. We shouldn't buy into anything without getting some info first."

He raised an eyebrow. "I'm saying that you're gullible."

I sighed. "Yeah, but what if it's true? And besides, they're going to come and contact us or whatever in another week. Or six days. If they could catch Spandex-Crotch and I, then I don't exactly doubt their ability to send us a calling card." I curled my lip up in a semi-snarl. "In the form of a giant, freakishly fast muscle man."

"It's just a scare tactic to get you to do what they want."

I put my now-empty cup down and leaned back in my chair. "Okay. But look at it this way. How could it possibly hurt us to snoop around? You know, do a little research, poke the anthill..." I wiggled my eyebrows at him in a desperate attempt to get my point across. "I mean, what's the worst that could happen?"

Now it was Wufei's turn to roll his eyes. "_You_ are the worst that could happen. Have you ever noticed that bad things happen wherever you go? You're always in the line of fire."

"That's because they're all jealous of my personality and good looks."

'Oh, really?" he sneered.

"Yeah, really. Look, I'm pretty sure of what I saw. It wasn't exactly pretty, and it's kind of hard to gross me out. I do, after all, constantly watch Heero pop body parts back into place."

"Maxwell, this isn't a question of your gross-out threshhold." Wufei shifted in his chair and glanced at the clock behind me on the wall. Class was soon, and while Wufei might have been worried about it, I certainly wasn't. He continued, "It's a question of if what you saw was real or just a hoax."

"Yeah, but - "

I was cut off by the sound of the bell ringing. The first class of the day was about to start.

Wufei grabbed his books. "I'm not saying that it's not worth investigating – I'm just saying that we don't need to get all paranoid until we have more facts. I'll talk to the guys and we'll meet up later on today to discuss it." He turned and walked away.

"I'm not paranoid, you know," I called after him. "I'm not," I repeated, more for myself than anyone else.

"I'm not..."

* * *

School was long. Gruelling. Boring. 

When I finally got back to the room, I was tired. It was only Monday, and the prospect of surviving the entire week was daunting. I hadn't slept in the least the night before. Images of bodies on carts had been rolling through my dreams. Huh. Go figure.

Heero wasn't there when I got back, but I was sure he wouldn't take long to show up. He never did. He would probably come back as soon as his last class was over and start working on his homework like the diligent little student that he was.

How thrilling.

I flopped down onto the bed and let my mind run wild. Thoughts of ghosties and goulies immediately sprang to mind and I had to cut my thoughts off hastily at the sound of my door opening ever so softly.

Rolling over to face the door, I saw that it was not Heero entering, but Quatre.

"Ah, Q-man. You come to grace me once again in my palace. Perhaps we could sit on the veranda and watch my private helicopter land?"

He smirked. "Still daydreaming, huh?"

"Hey man, I've got to have _something_ to do in my spare time."

He moved and sat on Heero's bed. "So...I guess we all have to talk, huh?"

"Yeah..." I sighed. "As usual, we've gotten to the point where nothing can be resolved without some kind of meeting."

"Well...at least we're doing something productive."

I snorted. "Productive my ass. We're wasting time _talking_ about investigating when we should actually _be_ investigating.

"Patience is a virtue, Duo," Quatre said, amusement tinting his eyes.

I rolled my eyes at him. "Well, I guess I'm fresh out of virtues today. Besides, who fed you that line?"

He shrugged and smiled. "It's an old line, Duo. It's been around for a couple hundred years at least."

I sneered at him. "Well, at least you're up to date."

"Still producing low-quality comebacks, Duo?" a voice said rather dryly from the door.

I turned to see Trowa. "Hey, T-man. Glad you could make it. Are you excited about this meeting or what?" I asked with feigned enthusiasm.

He rolled his eyes and ignored my question. "When are the others going to get here?"

I shrugged. "They're late. As usual. Heero's probably trying to get his spandex off without other parts of him coming off with it."

Quatre choked on a laugh and Trowa eyed me – well, one-eyed me – with distaste.

"What can I say? I reek of class." I winked.

Trowa rolled his eyes as the door opened again and Heero and Wufei walked in. Heero stopped for a moment, blinking stupidly, as if he was wondering why all of these people were in his room. Uh oh. He was getting his "people suck" look again.

I stiffled what would have resembled a giggle as he sat down on the bed. Eventually, the bewilderment began to fade from his face as he realized that these people needed to be here.

I opened my mouth and began to talk. "We're here today because blah blah blah, and blah blah blah happened, which I'm sure Heero told you all about...let's see...Wufei has doubts, Quatre has two hundred year old catchprases and I think that we should just do what they say because I, personally, am shitting my pants at the prospect of being 'called upon' by this group that seems to have so much info on us. Oh yeah, and has taken us prisoner once already _and_ managed to render at least one of us unconscious." I looked at Heero. "Anything to add?" I asked, and then continued without waiting for his reply. "Okay then, meeting adjourned. Nap time."

The other four pilots stared at me for a moment without moving.

"You need to start hiding Duo's crack pipe, Heero," Wufei drawled sardonically, breaking the silence.

I shrugged. "We all know my opinion. I was just giving you the short version."

"It's more complicated than that," Heero interjected.

"How?" I asked. "You were there. You saw it for yourself. Something is defenitely going down, and whether it's a hoax or not, we need to be on guard and ready with all the information we can possibly gather in order to prepare an answer for these fuckers. 'No' isn't going to work for them. This is a defenitely a multiple choice deal, and there's only once right answer. A little welcoming party is coming to gather all of us up and take us away and I'll be damned if I have nothing to go on when they do." I finished sounding a little incredulous.

Quatre spoke. "Well...I personally agree with Duo in that we need to be prepared. We need to have an answer for when these guys come back for us. We need to investigate."

"But where do we start?" Wufei asked.

"Internet."

We all turned to look at Trowa.

"What?" I asked. "What are we going to find on the internet?"

He rolled his eyes. "Heero's one of the best hackers around. I'm sure he could swing something."

Heero grunted in response. "I'll be in the computer lab." He turned and left the room abruptly.

"Nice exit, there," I muttered.

"I'll go with him," Trowa said softly, following behind Heero and closing the door softly behind him.

"Wow, that was quick," I said, more than just a teensy bit relieved. The party was almost over.

Quatre nodded. "Tell me about it. Wufei, what are you going to do?"

He shrugged. "Library. The one downtown is huge. It has some of the best books in the world, especially for research. Maybe I'll pick up something Heero and Trowa won't."

I raised an eyebrow. "Aren't they pretty thorough?"

He shrugged. "They're most likely looking for documents related to certain organizations that haven't got any publications in the library. I'm looking for older documents that probably aren't listed on the net or inside of any organization's database. After all, you said that Anthony said that the things were close to two hundred years old." He grabbed his coat off the bed and started toward the door.

He paused. "Oh, and Maxwell?"

"Yeah, Wu?"

"Don't get yourself into too much trouble."

I grinned. "Aw, come on man, you know me."

He raised a single eyebrow and turned to exit. "Yeah, I do." He closed the door behind him.

I looked at Quatre with raised eyebrows. "And then there were two."

He snorted. "Yeah. Well...what should we be doing? They didn't really leave us with much research to do."

"No such thing as too much research, man." I stood and grabbed my jacket and my keys from the desk. "I have a different idea. You want to come?"

He shrugged. "Where are we going?"

I smirked walked back to my bed to pull my gun out from under my pillow. I put it into my waistband and put on the jacket to cover it up.

"Directly to the source."

* * *

I was pretty sure that I remembered the place and when we stopped in front of the building, I was sure of it. The sight of it sent chills up my spine. Damn it. Another case of the creeps. Just what I needed. 

Quatre and I stood staring straight up for at least a minute. The building was tall.

"What are we waiting for?" Quatre finally asked.

I shrugged. "I don't know how to get in. There's a door around here somewhere, but it's...well...invisible." I saw Quatre smirk and open his mouth, and beat him to the punch. "Shut up."

He grinned. "So what do we do?"

I shrugged again. "Let's just...knock."

His eyebrows shot up. "Knock?"

"You got a better idea?" I shot back. I walked forward and rested my hand on the dark glass that covered the building. After a moment of hesitation, I made a fist and rapped lightly on the glass.

"Now what?"

I sighed impatiently. "Now we wait."

After a couple of minutes, I got tired of waiting. "This is stupid," I muttered. "They know we're down here." I stepped forward again and pounded on the glass. "Stop fucking with us," I growled between my teeth.

Suddenly, a shadow of glass seemed to descend upon us and, a few seconds later, what was once a wall of glass opened up to us, revealing itself as a doorway into an elevator.

_The_ elevator.

I swallowed hard and nodded grimly. "Let's go."

I stepped into the elevator, Quatre close behind me, and waited for the doors to close. There were no buttons, so we didn't really have a choice. It was straight up from here. Mirrors and polished wood surrounded us.

"Are you sure about this, Duo?" Quatre asked sounding a little nervous.

I grinned and winked at him. "Hey, baby, ride with me and it's first class all the way."

He smiled back at me but it was a strained expression, one that I was not at all accustomed to seeing on his face.

I was feeling a little tense myself. Even though I knew sort of what to expect, I was still a little creeped out. These obviously weren't normal people we were dealing with, if human.

After what seemed like an eternity, the door dinged and I swung around so as not to be caught staring at the wall as I had done on my previous visit. I tugged Quatre's arm and he followed suit.

A click followed, but nothing in front of us moved. Someone behind us cleared their throat.

Oh.

I turned back around to face the same woman that had greeted me in my "cell" on the first visit. "What are you doing here?" she asked tonelessly.

Obviously, neither her charm nor her humour had improved since I'd last been here.

I smiled disarmingly, even though I knew it would have no effect on her. "Hey, long time no talk, huh?" I stepped out of the elevator and past her into a different room than we'd been in when we'd met with Anthony. It was like the passageway outside of my cell had been – cold, uninviting steel and stone. "Nice crib."

I turned back to see her staring at me unblinkingly, with Quatre halfway out of the elevator as if unsure whether she would bite him or not. I smiled inwardly as the thought flickered through my mind that he probably would. Hell, so would I. Ice queen or not, she was hot.

I shook my head slightly as if to clear out the gutter that is my mind. "So...is Colonel D'Leur around? We have a couple of questions for him."

She gazed at me silently for a moment before speaking. "You know, it is considered extremely rude to drop in on someone without giving notice."

"Oh, so this organization doesn't do walk-ins?" I asked. I didn't wait for her to answer before continuing. "Well, that's funny, because neither do we. Yet, not two days ago, here we were, bruised and bleeding at your mercy. No phone call, no calling card, no nothing. But really, that's not the point." My grin hardened into something more serious. "Actually, we're here for a little information, so we would be much obliged if you or Colonel D'Leur could help us out. Or any other head honcho that's wandering the halls."

"I believe he made it quite clear to you what it was that he wanted."

"And I believe I've made it quite clear to you that we need more information from your 'organization' before we can make any informed decisions. Uninformed ones, of course, are the worst kind – in this case, I believe that goes for both parties." At this point, I was extremely proud of myself. I was in control, calm. Even Quatre wasn't saying anything, and he usually piped up to at least smooth over my...what was it that he called it again...oh, that's right - charm.

"You're not supposed to be here," she said, her emerald eyes glittering dangerously.

"I get that feeling that you shouldn't be here either, but you are. Now please, take us to the Colonel, or we'll have to find him ourselves."

She hesitated for a moment. She seemed pissed; mission accomplished. I held back a triumphant grin.

"Fine." She turned on her heel and began walking. I followed with Quatre in tow.

We followed her to a door which opened up to a maze of pipes and concrete. Wow. The décor hadn't improved much, either.

As we followed, I attempted to remember where and when we made the turns leading us further down the rabbit hole, but this maze was too complex for my simple mind. I shrugged to myself and fixed my eyes on the taught back of the woman that was leading us to either our enlightenment or what was to be our, no doubt, exremely painful death. At this point, I wanted neither of these things.

Suddenly, she stopped. Seeing as I'm such a nice guy, I halted behind her rather than mow her over. Quatre, however, didn't have as much luck, and plowed right into my back will a muffled thud.

As we straightened ourselves out she looked over us and I could have sworn that there was a twinkle of amusement in her eye. It was gone like a flash, though, and I was sure that whatever it was, it was defenitely malicious.

"You will wait here until he can see you," she commanded, and opened the door, stepping through to leave us behind before we had a chance to even argue. It closed with a metallic thunk and the sound of a deadbolt sliding home reached our ears. Maybe it was a dead body being dragged across the door. Hell. Who knew?

"Duo..."

"Quatre, chill." I turned to face him. "If they wanted us dead, they'd have done it by now."

"Yeah, but how do you know that?" He slumped against one of the walls looking more than a little worried. "This could be a giant trap."

I shook my head. "Dude, listen. This whole _thing_ is a giant trap. The thing is, they might be offering us an escape...we just have to do a job for them, that's all." I leaned against the opposite wall and closed my eyes. A strong yearning for my bed hit me and I yawned. Shaking the yawn off, I continued. "They won't hurt us now...unless we say no. They obviously want us for something, and they want all five of us. If Heero and I weren't enough, then, assuming we don't get out of here alive, the remaining three won't be enough either. They're greedy bastards. Besides," I said, lowering my tone a notch, "We need to get back to them with whatever information we get here. These guys know it. We're going to be their little messengers to carry the threat back to the tribe. And as long as that gets us out of here alive, that's fine with me."

Quatre nodded. "I guess you're right."

"Of course I am, baby. You know me. Mr. Right." I winked at him for effect and he rolled his eyes.

"Charming as always, I - "

The sound of a series of metallic clinks cut him off and we both straightened immediately and faced the door.

And waited.

And...waited.

And – well, you get the idea.

"Did you hear that?" I asked after a moment of silence.

"Yes." A voice behind us caused me to jump.

I whirled around. "Damnit! You guys have _got_ to stop doing that! It's starting to creep me out."

Anthony merely stared at us, those blue eyes drilling away into my brain.

I shrugged. "Sorry. I just don't like being spooked, that's all."

"Understandable," he said softly. "I'll try to keep that in mind." He turned on one heel and began to march down the hall.

I looked at Quatre, who shrugged and nodded. We began to follow him, deeper into the maze.

Only one thought managed to rip though the tangled mess of my brain...

We were so screwed.


	4. Probably Downloading Porn

Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing at all. I know. Sucks to be me.

Author's Note: Chapter four!! Hope this is a good one. It gets a little weird from here on out, so bear with me. Let me know if I'm keeping the tone of the story consistent. Anyway...here they are, collecting more info. Giant shock ahead!

Pushing My Luck

As Quatre and I followed Anthony down the cold steel hallway, neither of us spoke. Anthony seemed fine with the peace and quiet, so that was good enough for us.

Besides, no matter how tough I tried to act, I had a feeling that I was still a small fry in the big scheme of things. Then again, that remained to be seen. After all, I was important enough to kidnap.

Finally, when we could go no further, Anthony, our friendly tour-guide, halted.

Without looking at us, he pushed his hand against the wall, and a couple of seconds later, a cheerful beep sounded as the wall in front of us slid up, revealing another room that I still couldn't see because of Anthony's big, fat head.

Okay, so maybe being shorter than everyone brings out the worst in me. So what?

As we moved through, the door slid shut behind us, and I realized that these guys were some serious technology points ahead of us. But we had Gundams. Oh yeah. Can't forget about those.

I finally ripped myself away from the amusement park that is my mind and looked around at the space we were currently occupying.

And Heero says I can't use big words.

I have to admit, I had to hold my breath in order not to let out a gasp and risk sounding like a cheerleader who's just seen someone with much bigger pom-poms. Or boobs.

The room was the same as the hall outside had been as far as décor went, but the furniture – wow. These guys were definitely one up on us. The room was long and narrow and seemed to go on forever, not to mention that the ceiling height reminded me stongly of a cathedral; but that wasn't the interesting part. No, the thing that grabbed my attention was the fact that along the wall, every three feet or so, were giant tanks. People-sized tanks. Or...

Shit.

Anthony didn't give us much time to gawk, though, and kept moving along the room toward what I supposed was what we'd come to see. Or maybe there was a donught table down there. Complimentary coffee, anyone?

As I passed the tanks, though, I noticed that they were not unoccupied. Through the thick blue fluid I caught glimpes of what looked like...limbs...oh, dear God...

I paused for a moment and leaned closer to one and suddenly, out of nowhere, a head and giant teeth came slashing at me. I heard them scrape against the glass as they tried to bite my head – or perhaps other parts of my anatomy – off. I jumped back, bewildered, and quickened my pace to keep up with the good ol' Colonel, who had slowed his pace somewhat to look back at me over his shoulder. He looked mildly amused, but the expression soon passed and he resumed his normal pace as he turned his head back to look forward once again.

At this point, I had to admit – I was more than shaken. I was downright freaked out.

I decided that it was best at this point to keep my hands and eyes to myself, so I began to stare down at the floor and just watch where I was walking.

Ignorance was bliss. Yeah. Right.

Suddenly, we stopped, and when I looked up, Anthony was reaching out to lay his palm flat against the wall in front of us as he had when we'd first entered the room. I watched once again as the wall slid up in front of us, but this time, I managed to keep my awe under control. Round two; they had special doors and people-tanks; we had Gundams. Once again, we totally won on this one.

I tore myself away from my own ever-enthralling thoughts to check out the new room we'd just entered. It was lit with a soft blue light that had no apparent source and it was empty – except for a giant wall of glass in front of us. As we approached it, I realized that it was a one-way mirror and that we were looking at yet another room on the other side of it that had the same eerie lighting as the one we were standing in right now. As I looked closer, I saw that the room was lined with bars, even in front of the glass.

Before I could turn to ask Anthony why, I got my answer.

The steel door slid up and three men, all armed and wearing protective clothes and masks, wheeled in a cart with a body on it. After a couple more seconds of observation, it became pretty apparent that it was a live body, and it was struggling to get off the cart, even though the steel retraints on its arms, legs, and torso prevented it from doing so.

Dear God. Whatever next?

The men circled the cart once and then left the room abrupty, the door sliding shut behind them.

I opened my mouth to speak but Quatre beat me to it.

"What are those - "

"Wait." Anthony didn't even glance at us; he kept his gaze fixed firmly on what was happening in the room in front of us.

After a few seconds, the man – at least, it looked like a man, but I've been fooled before – stopped struggling and leaned his head back in what appeared to be resignation. Suddenly, the locks on his body sprang free and he leaped up. I almost flinched. Almost.

He paced the room with the grace of a cat, looking alertly around him as if trying to find an escape.

"Those locks automatically spring free thirty seconds after the imput of a certain code," Anthony said before I could ask. "Perhaps you'd like to hear this." He pressed a small red button next to the window and the sound of the next room was instantly audible to our ears over what seemed to be an incredibly advanced speaker system.

Screams. They were screams of terror, of rage. The most horrible screams I'd ever heard. They didn't even sound human – in fact, I was pretty sure that they weren't.

Wow. Anthony sure had _someone_ by the balls.

"It's interesting," he stated. "When they're in their confinement tanks, they're subdued, quiet. When they're out in the open, they scream like banshees, as if they're hoping that someone will hear them and come to their rescue. They have extraordinary strength, but cannot seem to bend the bars to their will – one of their apparent flaws is that they have an extreme dislike for electrical currents. Really, it's the only thing we can use to keep them in. We do not harm them, but we do not let them out in public. We can study them only when they are asleep, so we switch times on them. Extremely lit environments during the night, darkness during the day. We watch them grow, and still we do not understand them. Speaking to them has proved almost impossible - they will not respond to us, other than to scream obscenities at us or attempt an attack. They get eight hours of time to move around in these cells per day. We cut off the oxygen before we move in to take them out, weakening the considerably so that they don't fight us. This is only one cell of two hundred, and one creature, for lack of a better term, of one hundred and thirty-seven."

"Why are they here?" I asked.

"Every one of these creatures has flooded the streets, wreaking havoc on the general population. They used to be controlled – now, I'm afraid, they are not, which is why we had to bring them into captivity."

Suddenly, the figure inside the room whirled and started to pummel his fists into the cart on which he'd been transported. Anthony pressed a button and began to speak. "Adel, stop. You will be put back if you continue to destroy our property."

A voice, a hissing voice, came up through the speakers and seemed to grate on my ears. "I don't care. We'll have our revenge soon enough. The punishment makes me stronger. You cannot keep us all locked up in here forever...and when we do get out..." he laughed, a cruel laugh before continuing, "you will see who is the master here. _I am_!" He turned with a snarl of rage and began to bend the cart like I'd thought that only Heero could do. Within the following thirty seconds, he'd managed to reduce the cart to a small, crumpled scrap of metal.

Anthony wasted no time. He picked up a small radio microphone and began to speak. "We have a Code 11 in cell 22-Delta. Backup unit respond to report immediately. This one's hostile."

"Group Alpha-17 moving into cell 22-Delta, sir. Course of action?"

"Return to tank. Punishment pending."

"Roger."

He turned toward us. "Let's go to my office. I have a few more things to discuss with you." He turned on his heel and led us away.

Turning back, I couldn't help but feel sorry for these beasts, no matter how horrible they were. However, I was soon to lose all pity for them.

* * *

Anthony's office was smaller than the room we'd met him in before, but large enough to be impressive, even intimidating. The large desk looked like it'd just been cut out of a giant slab of granite. The walls were what would have been an unimpressive tinge of grey, but in this room, it was actually rather striking. And the ceilings...wow...you looked up and couldn't see the end of them.

We sat down in two chairs opposite the desk while Anthony sat in his large, leather chair. His desk seemed to have been cleared of papers and any other nasties that might have been deemed inappropriate for our innocent eyes.

He opened what appeared to be the top drawer of his desk and pulled out a manilla envelope.

"The subject you two just saw was responsible for these." He opened the envelope and passed a photo across, face down. Quatre reached to pick it up reluctantly and I leaned over toward him to get a better look.

The sight before me was one of the most gruesome I'd seen in all my days as a pacifist-terrorist. It seemed to be a family of four, stretched out on the floor, missing various body parts. The woman was missing her throat and a large chunk had been torn out of each thigh. The male had beem stripped of...certain parts of his anatomy. The children were the worst to look at. To describe it even now draws the horrific images back to my memory. One of them was holding a teddybear, and his face was so peacefull, it looked as if he would wake up any second.

I flipped the picture back over and slid it over the table again.

"What makes you think that your "subject" here had anything to do with this?"

"Mr. Maxwell, forensic science has surpassed the expectations of even the best scientists among us today. What you have seen today is a creation of great evil that needs to be stopped."

"Just one? Come on, man, you've got to give us a little more evidence that these things are a great danger to society. One isolated incident doens't prove anything." I sat back and raised an eyebrow at him.

He remained calm and collected. I saw his hand reach to push a button on the desktop and my right hand twitched as I wondered for a moment whether or not I should draw my gun.

"I can assure you, Mr. Maxwell, that there are many more cases than just this one."

Just then, the door opened and what appeared to be an orderly wheeled in a metal cart – at this point, my mind began to do backflips at the prospect of yet another "subject" – and left it in the room, leaving as silently as he'd come, after bowing deeply to our host.

"What are those?" Quatre asked.

"Those," he said, leaning forward, "are about one-tenth of the other cases all related to our subjects here, Mr. Winner."

I saw Quatre flinch when Anthony said his name – he was obviously dying to ask, "How did you know my name?" in that dumb, shocked voice that everyone gets in a situation like that. He remained quiet, however, leaving me free to open my big fat mouth.

What a pal.

"These are your cases?" I asked, trying not to show on the outside how dumbfounded I really was on the inside.

"One tenth," he reminded me quietly. "Of the cases related to our subjects only," he added, seemingly as an afterthought.

I stood and approached the cart. There were stacks of files. I took the first one and began to thumb through it. Quatre remained at the desk facing Anthony, should he try anything tricky. I've always said that Quatre was a kick-ass choice as far as backup goes, and he's never proved me wrong.

Each file I picked up was filled with photos and evidence, most of it gruesome beyond any description I would have been able to conjure up. After I'd gotten my fill, I sat down to face our host once more.

"How do we know you're not bullshitting us?"

He rose. "Well, I'm not, as you so crudely put it, _bullshitting_ you, and you'll have to just take my word on that."

"But - " Quatre was cut off by Anthony, who was obviously running out of patience for us and our questions.

"You will either choose to help us, or you won't. But I can assure you that you will be putting youselves in grave danger if you do not. I will see to it personally. So, you see, you really have no choice." His mouth twitched into a smirk. "No to mention, the general population will suffer greatly should you refuse. And that includes, of course, the school you are currently attending."

I stood, knowing that our meeting had come to a close. Hey, I know how to take a hint. "Well, I'll definitely take your message back to our comrades, but I don't think they're going to be too thrilled with it."

Quatre stood as well. "Thank you for your time."

Anthony smiled, his straight, white teeth showing briefly. "It's been a pleasure. I'll get an escort for you." He pushed the button again.

While we were waiting, that insatiable appetite for what I like to call "the last word" and Wufei likes to call "shit-stirring" got the better of me. "You know, we don't respond well to threats. Maybe if you hadn't treated your last clean-up crew like you're treating us, you'd have a lot more than a bunch of animated corpses to fill your spare moments."

Anthony smiled again, this time, rather unpleasantly. "These "corpses", as you so delicately put it, do not merely fill my spare time – they fill _all_ of my time. I'm doing what is right for the greater good of our society."

The door opened at this point and what I assumed was our escort arrived, bowing deeply.

"Show them out, please, Henry."

"M'Lord."

I almost snorted. '_M'lord'? _Henry was so whipped.

"Thanks for the info. Guess we'll be seeing you in a few days, now."

"Yes. Oh, and Mr. Maxwell?"

I turned back. His smile was seriously starting to creep me out.

"Just for the record, our last 'clean-up crew' did not leave us. They were eliminated."

I grinned back coldly. "That's nice. Well, you'll probably find that we aren't as submissive as they were."

"I'm sure," he murmured, and the door closed behind us.

* * *

When we got back to the room, Heero was nowhere to be seen.

"Probably downloading porn," I muttered, causing Quatre to snigger.

"Doubt it, Duo. You know how seriously he takes all of this stuff."

I flopped down on the bed with a lazy salute. "I'm sure he's just having a good time jacking off."

Really, I was just keeping on the subject of Heero's sexual tendencies to keep _off_ the subject of Anthony's little army. It was some serious shit that I really did not feel like dealing with.

As if reading my mind, Quatre shook his head. "You can't escape the facts forever, Duo. In a few days' time, we're going to have to have reached a decision, and that means we'll probably have to have at least one serious talk beforehand."

"I know," I said, sounding tired to my own ears. Glancing at the clock, I saw that it was already nine – close to my bedtime. Usually I was up until past midnight on a school night, but my brain was shutting down slowly and my eyes were growing heavy with exhaustion. "I'm so not up to this," I groaned as my eyes closed.

I heard Quatre move toward the door. "Well, I'm going to let you get some rest. I'll be in my room if you want to talk or anything."

I sighed without bothering to open my eyes. "That's what the voices in my head are there for, man."

I could almost hear him grin. "That's what I thought." The sound of the door closing behind him resounded in the room as my thoughts became dreams.

* * *

I had some weird dreams again that night too. Every time I woke up, I looked at the clock just to realize that I hadn't been asleep for more than half an hour.

By the time my alarm clock went off and I woke up for good, I was exhausted. I slammed my hand down on the snooze button. Looking around, I saw that Heero still wasn't back, but then again, he might've come in and slept and left before I woke up. He was pretty quiet when he needed to be.

His bed was made perfectly; not a crease marred the bedspread, and I half expected there to be a mint on the pillow. I amused myself with the image of Heero in a maid's outfit until my alarm clock went off for the second time. I've always found that the snooze button is a wonderful, yet cursed device. Like ten extra minutes is enough time to wake up extra-refreshed. Ha.

As I hauled my sorry ass out of bed, my eye caught on something on the desk next to his beloved laptop. Leaning closer, I saw that it was a note. As I picked it up, a shiver ran through my body that I was unable to repress.

_Mission. Back tomorrow. _

_H._

He'd gone on a mission. After over two months of no activity, I'd forgotten about _those_ little surprises.

I ran my hand through my hair and shook my head. He hadn't even said anything; then again, he'd left a note. Usually he didn't say anything. At least he was being considerate. Kind of.

Stupid Heero.

I mentally slapped myself and told my brain to shut up. This was too much.

As I walked into the bathroom and got into the shower, I began to think. He'd come in last night and left a note and gotten his equipment without waking me up. It was a little disconcerting, since I'd been trained to notice any suspicious noise, even in my sleep. I'd been super tired, but sleeping lightly. I should have noticed him in the room.

Maybe he was avoiding me.

Or maybe...maybe he'd found something and gone to check on it.

As I rubbed shampoo through my scalp, I rolled my eyes at myself for what seemed the fiftieth time that morning. I was reading into this way too much.

Worried? Me?


	5. Skip the Drama

Disclaimers: Once again, I own nothing. I'm poor. Cold pasta, anyone? I made sauce out of salt and water...;

Author's Note: I worked hard on this one. Let me know what you think. The G-boys start to pick up the pace on this one, so it should be much more exciting from here on out. Have fun!

Pushing My Luck

The day's classes were the same ol' same ol'. I was a little bored to be honest. Anxious, really. There were no new developments, and none of the guys had even approached me to talk about what was going on. I still hadn't relayed any of the info I'd picked up from Anthony to any of them, and it was making me nervous. We seriously needed to regroup.

As I walked through the halls back to my dorm, I thought about all the recent developments. The _things_ were bad, Anthony was supposedly good, and we were pawns.

Fuck my ass.

This was getting a little too intense for me.

Not to mention that the doctors still hadn't given me any new orders...they seemed to be in contact with Heero...but I was still wondering whether or not it was the doctors or his own incentive that had taken him off on whatever mission he'd gone to accomplish.

Hell, who knew, it could be supermarket shopping.

All the sudden, someone darted out in front of me, causing me to halt in my path in order not to knock them off their feet. And they say I have no manners.

Of course, this meant that I fell down on my ass. Ah. Such grace.

Looking up, I saw that it was Trowa.

"Hey man, what's up?" I asked, a little hesitant. I wasn't really used to being cut off like that.

"We need to have a meeting. Quatre told me what happened when you guys went back there."

"Great," I said, mildly relieved. At least someone was taking this seriously.

He turned, expecting me to follow. Like the pathetic excuse for a black sheep that I am, I followed him.

Soon enough, we ended up at his room. When he opened the door, I saw Wufei and Quatre waiting inside.

"Where's Heero?" Wufei asked.

"Mission," I said. I didn't feel the need to elaborate and the others accepted my answer as it was.

Over the course of the next hour and a half, we discussed everything that Quatre and I had found out at Anthony's playpen. But after a while, going over the information over twenty times really started to take its toll.

Wufei had found some interesting stuff at the library. There was in fact an organization that had been in place for a span of about five hundred years late in the second millenium. When Wufei revealed this little bit of information, I scoffed.

"Really, Wu-man. These were probably just a bunch of fanatics who fancied themselves the hunters of mythical beasts and the protectors of mankind. Just another group of drugged up politicians, if you ask me. We've all heard of them – those who invent invisible dangers to protect us from in able to achieve a place of power in society." I shrugged. "What makes these guys any different?"

"That's what I thought," Wufei said, searching through his schoolbag. "But then, I found this." He held up an old leather-bound book and smiled creepily.

I leaned forward to take it out of his grasp, and, surprisingly enough, he let me. Opening the book I saw that it was all in English...weird, considering that English hadn't been so widely spread during the time span we were looking at. As I thumbed through it, a passage caught my eye.

_...and we shall suffer until our savior comes, one who fears neither the sword nor the eye, nor the holder of them both; he is the one who shall take all evil into the palm of his hand and crush it into dust. Alas, those who are saved shall know not, for the evil of this world must be hidden in the folds of time, lest it penetrate and destroy the beiliefs of mankind. The savior will be shunned; only the closest of both his allies and enemies will be able to aid him for he will be a marked man by the Chosen._

I looked up at this point. "It talks about a savior. It's some kind of...prophecy or something. But what does this have to do with anything?"

Wufei smirked, looking smug. "It describes creatures with exactly the same symptoms that the beings held in the facility show. You know, Maxwell, there might actually be something here."

I shrugged and let the book fall back onto the bed I was sitting on. "Doesn't prove anything."

Wufei's smirk grew in size. "Weren't you the one who was saying we needed to research this stuff?"

"And weren't _you_ the one who said that we needed to be a little more critical of the information we received from unknown sources?" I shot back at him.

At this point, Quatre stepped in. "Both of you need to stop it," he said in a forceful tone, one that sounded wrong coming from him. "Whether it's true or not, I think we all agree on the fact that we need to investigate any sources we find." He glanced toward me. "That means the book."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine," I agreed grudgingly, and then more forcefully when his glance turned into a full blown glare. "Okay, fine! Whatever. Geez. What did Trowa and Heero find out?"

"Well, we looked up what we could but...nothing." Trowa remained expressionless, although I thought I saw a flash of disappointment pass through his face.

A thought came to mind. "Could you look up the Chosen?"

He shrugged. "I'm on it."

"Good," I said. "Because I'm not going to have much time to fool around on the net as long as I have this book to read."

* * *

The book wasn't as long as I'd thought it would be. The text was ornate, sure, but it was large, and the leather cover made it seem much bigger than it actually was.

Days later, we all met again in my room to discuss the book.

"Welcome to this week's book club meeting," I said in a soft monotone, smiling falsely as the boys filed past me. None reacted except for Wufei, who rolled his eyes, and Quatre, who stiffled a chuckle. I winked at him. He and I are really the only two that appreciate the true humour of moments like these.

As the moved to close the door, some unseen force on the other side prevented me from doing so. I pulled the door open again to see Heero standing there, looking dirty and tired, but none the worse for wear. I motioned him inside, trying to keep my facial expression in check. There would be plenty of time to question him later.

"Crumpet, anyone?" I joked as I sat down on the bed next to Quatre.

"Just get to the point, Maxwell," Wufei said impatiently.

"Fine," I sneered, resisting the urge to pout. "I read the book." I waited for their response.

"And?" Wufei prompted.

"Inside, there were a lot of what looked like prophecies, foretellings of the future. That general kind of stuff. After a couple of days' reading, I figure that it all boils down to this." I paused, almost dramatically, but Wufei opened his mouth to protest.

Before he could complain, I finished my thought. "Okay, okay. Skip the drama. A long time ago, there was this group, call the Chosen. Their main purpose in life was to annihalate the mythical creatures that reigned throughout the earth. Anyway, they went after these creatures and killed them, one by one, until hardly any were left. The last known leader of any Chosen group was known as Ubithe. He was pretty brutal, but effective. When the group fell in the beginning of the new millenium, he disappeared. One of the main prophecies states that he is to return in the shape of another. He's also against what are known as Vampyres. Basically, he felt that the Vampyres invaded his personal space and weirded him out a little too much for his liking. So he...well, to put it politely, capped their asses." I grinned.

"But what does it have to do with us?" Quatre interjected.

"The Chosen are currently an active group. And they've contacted us." Heero's voice was quiet.

I started and looked across the room. I suppressed the question of 'How do you know that?' and instead asked, "Who told you to steal my thunder?"

He shrugged. "I did a little research of my own." He nodded at me and I took it as my sign to continue.

"Okay, so basically, the Chosen want us to join them. They want us to join." I raised an eyebrow before continuing. "They want us to fight. To bring the rest into captivity." I stood and began to pace the room. I hate getting fidgety. "In three days, they're coming to see us, and we need to have an answer ready."

Trowa spoke for the first time since entering the room. "What will we tell them?"

I sighed. "I don't know. I really don't know."

* * *

The last remaining days passed slowly as we anxiously awaited the arrival of Anthony's little crew. It wasn't exactly fun.

Heero was even quieter than usual, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get him to tell me where he'd been. I was sure that it wasn't really the Doctors that had put him up to it, meaning it wasn't top secret, and it was driving me crazy; then again, I'd come to the conclusion long ago that his main purpose in this life was to do just that.

Everyone seemed to keep more to themselves than usual. It was kind of weird, like we had our own little lives. In the early morning when I woke up, I could almost imagine getting out of bed and being a normal guy with normal problems, not some fighter pilot with a psycho roommate with homicidal tendencies and a group of badass vampire hunters on my ass.

When the final day finally dawned, I woke early. It was Sunday. I sighed internally at the thought that yet another day of the weekend would be ruined by another weird-out session, courtesy of Anthony and his lackeys.

I glanced at the clock. It was seven thirty. I didn't really have to get up, but after ten minutes of fidgeting, I gave up on getting more sleep and went to take a shower. I was just too damn nervous. As I passed Heero's bed, I knew that he wasn't really asleep; he was just faking it. Yet another thing that Heero and women have in common.

Once I finished my shower, I reached for my toothbrush and began to scrub away vigorously. I hate morning breath. It's so...yucky. After that, I combed my hair out and began to braid it, my fingers working almost mechanically behind my back.

Finally finishing, I spun around and came face to face with none other than the Perfect Soldier. The initial shock caused me to slip and I grabbed onto his shoulder to avoid cracking my head open on the hard tile floor. As soon as I was stable, though, I let him go. No telling _what_ he would do to me if I got too clingy.

"We should go," he said, unblinkingly.

I raised an eyebrow. "Where, exactly, do you want to go? You know we have a mind-fuck appointment today."

"That's what I mean. We should go."

I could feel my eyes bulging out of their sockets. "To the...the..._there_?!" I asked, the last word coming out as a whispered squeak. "Are you _kidding_ me?"

He turned away and walked out of the bathroom. "Be ready in fifteen. I'll get the others up."

I stood dumbfounded for a moment. I'd never actually thought of going to Anthony before he got to us. This was all just a little too much for me. Then again, when I thought about it, it made perfect sense. It would at least give us an element of surprise and rip theirs out from under their asses. Having the upper hand, at least initially, was never a bad thing.

As I followed him back out into the room, he moved toward the door. He paused there, and spoke without turning around. "Prepare yourself. They're all ready." He opened the door and stepped out, closing it quietly behind him.

I knew exactly what he meant. I moved toward his bed and knelt down on the floor. Shortly after we'd moved in, we'd realized that if anyone ever got into our room and found our stockpile of assorted weapons, we'd be in deep shit. I found the hidden panel in his bed easily and pushed it aside. Since no one else was around, that meant that I had first dibs. I loved first dibs. It was the only thing that truly made me happy these days.

As I checked and double checked each weapon – not that I needed to; it was obvious that he'd recently cleaned and loaded each gun and sharpened each blade – I heard the door open and looked up to see him re-entering the room. He was already fully dressed, something that I'd failed to note before. Well, I guess that getting the crap scared out of them at quarter to eight in the morning does that to a person.

Behind him was Trowa. I raised an eyebrow. "Wow, you really are a magician to be fully dressed already," I muttered. He didn't even look my way; he just sat on the bed and waited for me to finish choosing my weapons.

As soon as I was finished and ready to go, he knelt down on the floor to sort through the remaining shiny toys.

Quatre came in shortly after that, followed by Wufei, both fully dressed and already armed. Quatre had his own little tools as did Wufei; Wufei preferred his swords and katanas, and Quatre was a little more discrete – I knew for a fact that he had about half a dozen blades placed in strategic locations on his body. I also knew that he had a few more tricks up his sleeve...or sleeves. I decided not to ask.

Once we were armed and ready to go, we strolled out into the streaming sunlight and toward our almost certain doom.

What a bunch of morons.

* * *

Outside the building it was completely still. Strange, for this time of day, but then again, it was a Sunday. Still...it made me nervous.

I stepped forward and rapped firmly on the glass exterior in front of me.

Once again, we were left to wait. After a while, Wufei spoke.

"What's taking so long? Are you sure this is the place?" he scoffed.

I shrugged and looked at my watch. "It's nine. Maybe they don't open till nine thirty," I deadpanned. "Should have called about their business hours."

Quatre chuckled nervously. "Or gotten their card or something." Suddenly, the smile disappeared from his face. "It's coming," he said, raising his eyes to the structure before us.

It was true. As I looked up, I saw the slightest of shadows descending down the large glass landscape and I felt something stir in the pit of my stomach. Fear? Ha.

Okay, maybe.

The doors opened smoothly in front of us and we stepped in without hesitation.

I could see Wufei open his mouth in peripheral vision, and beat him to the punch. "Yes, Wufei, I'm sure this is the place."

He raised an eyebrow but remained silent.

As we moved upward, I contemplated the most important issue of the moment – which way the doors were going to open. Damned if I would be caught staring at a wall again.

Aside from that, I thought about the fate that lay ahead of us. Well, for starters, we had no concrete answer to give them yet. That would be interesting.

I felt the elevator pull smoothly to a halt and thought quickly. Being a little dissortiented was normal, I guessed, that high up, so I did my best. After a few moments' thought, I settled on facing neither the front not the back. I would face the side. Yes. That way I wouldn't look like a total ass.

Wrong again.

As the door dinged, I felt a movement behind me that meant that the door had opened on neither of the expected sides. It had opened right behind me.

Crap.

I turned around to see that the guys somehow hadn't had that problem – they were all facing in the appropriate direction. Double crap.

Beyond the doors stood our beloved Helena Windoran. She stared at us all appraisingly before snapping her cold concrete expression back in place.

"I was under the impression that we would be visiting you today, Sirs," she said with an air of contempt, brushing a stray strand of her red locks away from her face. She was wearing the same uniform now that she had been when I'd first met her, a deep dark green that set off her eyes and contrasted her long fiery hair.

"Well, well, the ice princess is speaking with some – what's the word – _animation_ in her voice today," I said with a sly grin.

She merely raised an eyebrow at me before turning on her heel and walking away.

"I guess we follow her," I muttered. "Can't she just ask us to come along nicely? What is with the dramatic little exits?"

Quatre elbowed me gently in the ribs as we began to follow her. "Just be nice," he muttered to me under his breath.

"Hey, Q-man, don't you worry about me. I'm a perfect little Mr. Manners."

He rolled his eyes. Trowa spoke up beside him. "I bet you are."

I winked at him and we continued moving down the hall toward what hopefully would not be our final resting place.

The walk didn't take long and Windoran stopped in front of the door which I recognized as the entrance to Anthony's office. She stopped and bowed deeply. "You may enter from here. I can escort you no further."

I nodded to her and reached forward to push the door open. As I did so, her hand darted out to grab me around the wrist, almost causing me to jump. Almost.

"I would advise you to think carefully before giving My Lord any certain answer. Do not underestimate his power."

I nodded again. "Thank you." I pushed the door open and she let go of my wrist. I took a deep breath and led the way.


	6. As You Wish

Disclaimers: I...own..._nothing_.

Author's Note: This is my favorite so far. I'm really starting to get into this...I wish someone else would! Review! Please!

Pushing My Luck

"How kind of you to join us," came Anthony's soft voice from the depths of his office. I was surprised to see that he looked considerably tired; he had soft shadows under his eyes and the lines of his face seemed to stand out a little more than they had done in the past.

"Well, we figured that we'd come see you ourselves and save you the gas," I said as I dropped down into one of the five chairs that were now facing his desk.

"Yes," he said bemusedly. "Generous of you." At this point he stood and motioned for the other pilots to sit down. Obviously, they still believed in polite invitations. Ha.

As they did so, he reached out to shake each of their hands and greet them by their last names. They merely nodded back, even Quatre, who was usually just _oozing_ with smiles and politeness.

"Today seems to be the big day, huh?" I said, kicking things off.

Anthony's eyebrow shot up half a centimeter. "Why yes, Mr. Maxwell, it does. I trust that you've all come to an appropriate decision."

"Well, actually," I said, determined to get a word in before anyone else, "we're still a little curious as to your motives." I held up a hand to stop any speech on his part. "Whoa, there, don't jump the gun. We have made certain decisions based on the information we've already received from you. We just want to finish painting the picture."

He leaned back in his chair, apparently in thought. After a moment, he spoke. "Alright. What would you like to know?"

"Who are the Chosen?" Wufei asked.

Anthony nodded at him. "An interesting question. I see you've done some research on our organization. Although, Mr. Chang, we no longer go by that name. However, I fail to see its relevance to the matter currently at hand."

I nodded and grinned. "Yeah. Well, we were just wondering. But really, what we'd like to know is exactly how we can help you. What does this job involve?"

"Mr. Maxwell, we are searching to destroy this unit of beings. They pose a threat to society. May I remind you, though, that this is what we discussed during our first meeting?"

I nodded. "Yeah, but we're wondering exactly what it is that the Chosen want us to do."

Anthony sighed and massaged his temples. "We've been over this, Mr. Maxwell, and I must admit that my patience is wearing thin. Unless you have any further questions that haven't been answered already, I believe that it's best that you give me your final decision."

"Alright there, settle down," I said, a little grumpily. "We just want to know what your organization stands for."

Anthony sighed again. "Our group was set up many years ago to eliminate what were referred to as "vampyres". They were, and still are, considered a threat to the existence of all that is human."

I cocked my head. "Are you human?"

He smiled knowingly. "Based on my actions, yes."

I raised a single eyebrow but remained silent. Hell, even _I_ knew when to keep quiet.

Anthony continued. "These vampyres wreaked havoc on all of Earth. Of course, they have probably infested the colonies by now. It's our job to keep the population safe. We are merely asking you to join in. There seems to have been an increase in the slaughter of humans over the past months. Normally, it is highly unusual for Vampyres to act as such, but if their circumstances have changed unfavorably as had been predicted, there's no telling what they'd do to survive. If the case files haven't convinced you, then I'm really not sure what to tell you. You have no choice but to choose now."

Heero spoke for the first time. "How do we kill them?"

Anthony smiled. "I'm glad you asked. You'll need to kill them in the most effective way possible. Shoot them, cut their heads off, or burn them."

"Whoa, whoa," I said, putting my hands up. "A little extreme, don't you think? Why can't you just bring them here?"

"Because, Mr. Maxwell, we are currently terminating any further research on these creatures. They have already managed to take too many of my people. We need to put a stop to them _now_." Ah. So that was why he was so grumpy today.

"And we're the best candidates for the job?" Trowa spoke for the first time.

"Yes, Mr. Barton. You are."

I licked my lips and resisted the urge to fidget. "How do we find them?"

"Oh, they already know who you are. It was only a matter of time until we'd contact you. That time has come and they are on the move. So, you see, you really have no safe way out."

"So we've got no choice?"

"I'm afraid not."

I snorted. "Nice way to trap us, there."

He shrugged. "It was not entirely my decision."

"I'm sure." I looked at the other guys.

Heero spoke up. "Could we have a minute?"

He nodded and stood. "A moment, Mr. Yuy. Then I'll expect your final decision."

"Sure." The fear that I'd felt stirring in my stomach before came back on full blast. This was not going at _all_ the way I'd wanted it to. So much for the upper hand.

Once Anthony exited the room, we began to regroup. "What do you think, guys?"

Trowa spoke softly. "It appears we have no choice."

Wufei bowed his head. "Seems that way."

Quatre nodded, and Heero remained silent. I took that as a yes.

"Alrighty, then." My stomach sank. "I guess that's it, then."

"Hn," Heero responded.

At that moment, there was a knock on the door and Anthony re-entered the room. "I take it you've come to a decision." He settled behind his desk and folded his hands on his lap.

"Yeah," I said. "We'll do it. We have no choice. Nice little corner you've backed us into."

He shrugged. "Like you, I had no choice." He leaned forward. "You will find that there are many different kinds of beings in this universe. Some of them simply cannot co-exist with humans. It's in their nature, just as our human nature hinders us on certain occasions."

I sighed. "Tell us what we need to know."

He sat back. "They vampyres are out hunting every night. Do not mistake them for the simple beings that many authors have portrayed them as over the centuries. They are like us in appearance, but very different in mind. They are unnaturally strong, fast and agile. Do not try to match them in a fight; they will take you down. Hunting them requires skill, thought and concentration. Rash behavior will get you killed.

"They are not afraid of anything except for the light, or perhaps, a being stronger than they are. Like humans, some are more intelligent than others, and some are as naïve as a newborn child. They will turn your best friends against you if need be – trust no one." He paused in thought. "Arm yourselves well, and be ready at any time. The older they are, the more powerful they become. Some have lived many centuries; the oldest have been around for thousands of years, some even long enough to actually become immune to dim light. They are not stupid."

I leaned back in my chair, suddenly thoughtful. "And how do you plan to keep track of our progress? Should we start a wall chart or something?" I smirked at the idea.

"We will know. We have our ways." That seemed to be enough of an answer for him, so I didn't push.

I shrugged. "So how do we contact you if we have any problems?" I asked.

"Once again, we will know." He leaned forward again. "We will have people in touch with you. You may even make allies along the way. The rest is up to you."

I rubbed my temples, trying to relieve some of the pressure that had been building there for the last five minutes. "Is that all?" I asked, trying to sound more confident than I really was.

"Yes," he said simply, pushing a button on his desk. "Lieutenant Windoran will show you out."

* * *

Once out on the street, I glanced at my watch. Barely an hour had passed since we'd entered the building, and I was feeling a little better now that we'd given our answer. 

Well...only a _little _better.

I looked over at the guys, who were standing beside me, and said, "Well...sure am glad that's over."

Wufei rolled his eyes. "It's not over, Maxwell. They have people onto us, damn it. We're now easily found."

Quatre chose this moment to speak up. "But didn't Anthony say that we would have been contacted anyway? This doesn't change much. It just means that we have an ally."

Trowa nodded. "I guess so. I still wouldn't believe everything he says."

I stretched, still sleepy. "Well, I'm going back to get some rest. I'm tired as hell. This little thrill ride has done _nothing_ for my mood or good looks." I grinned as Wufei rolled his eyes, and started walking in the direction of the school.

We walked in silence. No one seemed to feel the need to speak at this point. We were all too busy mulling the new information over in our minds. I had to admit, while I was glad that we wouldn't have to report to Anthony any time soon, the prospect of being visited by the nasties gave me chills. Wouldn't that be nice? Waking up to the smell of blood, fear and impending doom. Ah. Brought back memories.

Back in my room, I was feeling oh-so-_pleased_ with myself. At this point, I had complete confidence in the fact that I, Duo Maxwell, would never be visited by the nasties. Just because I'd made a deal with Anthony didn't necessarily mean that I was going to keep it. It didn't seem like a good idea to tell him to fuck off, but I sure as hell wasn't going to play by his rules alone. I had my own ideas.

The small TV was on in our room and I lay with my eyes closed, half-listening to it. It was that kind of white noise that just put me to sleep. Heero, on the other hand, while fiddling around on his own little black laptop and possibly looking up midget porn, was probably paying very close attention. Hell, he probably knew all the jingles for air fresheners and instant noodles by now.

I could feel myself drift off a little bit, but it wasn't enough that I was asleep. Now I was just, well, semi-conscious.

Suddenly, a voice began to drill into my consciousness. A familiar voice.

A particularly _annoying_ voice.

"_...the terror that has been instilled in the hearts of the population. We are doing our utmost best to bring these criminals, these murderers to justice. The Sanc Kingdom speaks for all of Earth's people when it states that the guilty shall not go unpunished..._"

I sat up and stared at the television. Heero was also watching intently, so still that I wouldn't have been surprised if he'd stopped breathing. Then again, that wasn't entirely impossible; he was one weird guy.

As soon as she stepped down from her podium or whatever, I looked at Heero. "What was she talking about?"

He shrugged. "There have been a lot of murders lately."

"What kind of murders?" I asked, my blood running cold.

He merely gave me a look that said everything before turning back to his laptop.

Of course. "You don't have to be so cryptic," I muttered under my breath. "You could just say the word."

"I'd rather not," he said, surprising me.

"Huh?"

He turned to face me once more. "I'd rather not discuss the matter...here." He gave me a stern look that said in no uncertain terms that I should keep my big fat mouth shut.

"Fine. See if I care." I rolled back over and closed my eyes.

* * *

When I woke a couple of hours later, the room was empty. Heero was obviously someplace either boring or scaring the snot out of someone. He did have a tendency to get rather monotonous. 

Outside it was just starting to get dark, the last glimmers of they day shining dully through the window. I stood and stretched, wincing when a couple of vertebrae cracked.

My stomach rumbled and I grimaced. Hungry. I went into the bathroom to make sure that my braid was still vaguely in place and left the room, tromping down to the cafeteria hoping that the mystery meat wasn't mooing. Or squealing.

As I traipsed down to the dining hall, my brain began to sluggishly mull over everything that'd happened that day. I wasn't feeling too hot, I had to admit. Life was certainly about to become much more difficult than it already was – and believe me, the way it already was had me shitting my pants. Gundams I could handle. Leos I could handle. But _vampires_?

Not so much.

I was so lost in my thoughts that, once again, I didn't notice another pair of footsteps approaching from further down the hall, and before I knew it, I'd run into someone for the second time that week. It was a replay of last time; I ended up on my ass on the floor. And it hurt.

Crap.

I looked up to see Wufei looking down at me with one eyebrow raised. "Daydreaming?" he asked.

"Sleepwalking," I answered, with a sheepish smile. I took the hand that he offered and hoisted myself to my feet, brushing myself off. "What about you?"

He shrugged. "Going down for some dinner."

"So am I. I'm hoping that I won't have to get my stomach pumped afterwards, though." I grinned as we started walking together.

"Ah. Yes." He snorted.

"Really, all I want to do is get out of here for a while. I need some fresh air." I sighed. "All of this...stuff is really making me nervous, you know what I mean? Like we don't have enough on our plates already." We turned a corner and hit the main hallway that led straight to the cafeteria.

There was a very obvious problem – the lights were out, the doors were closed, and there was a sign that clearly read, "Open tomorrow morning".

I rolled my eyes. "I've got to feed the beast, Wu-man." My stomach grumbled loudly, and I could have sworn that it'd echoed off the hall walls. I shot him my most fantastic grin. "Feel like heading downtown for some food?"

He gave an almost inaudible sigh. "I suppose."

"Great." I started walking toward the exit, considerably happier. At least now I'd be able to work off that pent up energy that had flooded my body. "Have you seen the other guys?"

He shook his head. "Mission," was all he said.

I almost stopped dead in my tracks. "_Mission_?! How come _I_ never get called out?" I shook my head. "The good ol' docs think that I'm happy living my life as a student, huh?" I pushed open the big glass doors and stepped out into the quickly approaching night. "I never get any action," I complained, kicking a rock. "It's like watching porno – the stars of the show get to have all the fun and I'm just on the sidelines, trying to keep up."

I heard Wufei almost choke, and I wasn't sure if he was trying to stifle his laughter or if he just disapproved of my sense of humor. Probably both.

"You should be glad you're not out there. This isn't some sort of glamorous lifestyle we've got," Wufei pointed out softly.

I shrugged. "I know. I just...you know, Wufei, it's not the same. At least when I'm there I get to see what happens. I want to participate in some of this. I've never been good at being left out." I kicked another rock. It felt good. "I know it's not logical to want to be out there fighting, but it's better than being stuck here."

I heard him cough lightly. "You know what it's like, Duo. You can't do anything about it"

I curled my lip up in a snarl. "I guess."

We kept walking in silence until we reached downtown. It was buzzing with life, even though it was a Sunday. Yet another city that never sleeps. I swear to God, they keep popping up. It's annoying as hell.

We found a little Thai restaurant – since I love Thai food and Wufei would eat a rock if it was presented well enough – and soon I was sipping my Thai iced tea and waiting for my _Geang Panang_ to arrive. By now it was completely dark and I was just enjoying feeding off the good energy of the people around me.

We ate and made small talk. Wufei told me that the guys wouldn't be coming back until the next day, but that meant it was a short mission. Piece of cake. No need to get worried.

Sure.

After we'd finished, we began the slow walk back to the school. I could have hit the bars or something, but it was a school night and Wufei was getting that grumpy edge that he got whenever he was full of food and sleepy. There was no way I was getting him into a bar without an argument, and I was just too tired to fight him right now.

We were almost at the school when I felt it – that prickling sensation at the back of my neck that meant I was being watched. Anyone else would have ignored it, but I'd learned from my mistakes. I only got that feeling when someone was watching me intently, and shit, I hadn't been wrong yet.

"Hey, 'Fei," I said quietly. "Smell that?" _Someone's here._

He nodded and kept walking. "Sewage." _Sure do. _

For a couple of minutes we kept walking, the creepy feeling working its way up and down my spine. Something was definitely off-kilter, and it was hard not to increase my pace and risk letting whoever it was know that we were onto them.

My hand twitched and I thanked the lord that I'd thought to bring a gun. Smartest thing I'd done all day.

Something dashed out in front of us, a blur of black and shadow. I had a flashback to the night that Heero and I had been out, when this whole mess had started. Somehow, though, I didn't think that we'd be getting off so easily this time. Anthony would have just contacted us. This was different.

A part of myself had become detached, the part of me that felt fear – ironically, the part of me that also dictated my logic. I could almost hear my logical self chuckle in the background as I realized that Anthony had used vampires to catch us the first time. Made perfect sense. Who better to trap two Gundam pilots than a superhuman beast?

I stopped and Wufei followed suit – there was no point in continuing. We would not out-run them. We'd have to out-smart them. Or shoot them. Hm. The latter was a more attractive idea, somehow. Go figure. All that pent up frustration had to go somewhere...

So I drew my gun. I could hear the lightest of sounds as Wufei pulled a knife out of his sleeve and held it, ready for action. We stood with our backs to each other and listened. I had to suspend my breathing but my heart wouldn't stop beating, and for some reason the blood was pounding so loudly through my head that I thought it would explode. Now _that_ would be true mercy.

As we stood in the darkness, it was hard not to fight down a bout of panic. We were about to face an enemy that we'd never even dreamed existed, something that could crush a penny like a train.

I saw the flash in front of me again and just barely managed to keep from flinching. This was not cool. So not cool.

Suddenly, a shape descended and materialized in front of me. It was a man, not bad-looking, broad and muscle-y. He didn't look happy.

I knew that _I_ sure as hell wasn't.

He was wearing a long trench coat and his eyes glittered dangerously in the dark. He smirked at us and I saw two extremely long canine teeth poking out from underneath his top lip.

We stared at each other for a very long moment, unmoving. I felt myself break into a sweat, but I didn't care. Hell, even Heero would have been a little freaked out, and he was as macho as macho could get.

Suddenly, at an inhuman speed, the vampire's hand snapped out and slapped the gun from my hand. I didn't even have time to pull the trigger; it was just gone like that, and my hand suddenly ached as if I'd just slammed it in a car door.

I heard Wufei curse and his knife drop to the ground, and knew that he had his own visitor. This was so not good. So not good.

The vampire laughed softly and spoke for the first time. "This is what D'Leur has sent against us? A bunch of teenage boys, brandishing barbaric weapons? How quaint." His accent was British.

I was only listening to him with half an ear. I had to get to my other gun, the one tucked into my waistband, without arousing suspicion. There was no way, really, without tipping them off. So I did what I do best. I stalled.

"What do you want?" I growled as he smirked.

"Me?" he chuckled. "I want you. Should have been obvious, really. And they said that you were bright."

He stepped back and out of the shadows that were currently engulfing him. I could see his face better. He would have been good looking if he hadn't had that malicious gleam in his eye. His hair fell at shoulder length and he looked as if he hadn't shaved in a couple of days. Dark eyes, about six feet tall.

My brain had started to kick in and process the information that was currently standing in front of me. What can I say? I was trained to notice everything, every detail. There was a long, thin scar running down his cheek and his nose looked as if it'd been broken at least once.

I could hear Wufei behind me, trying to control his breathing. I, on the other hand, wasn't so good at controlling myself. When I was pissed, I was pissed. And when I was freaked out, well, it was usually in a situation where it wouldn't do any good to act like I wasn't.

He began to walk around me, toward Wufei. I didn't move. I could see another character coming around on my left side and held my ground, determined not to do anything stupid.

Fuck it.

While they were still moving, I whipped my right hand behind my back and pulled out the gun. I didn't even think. I just aimed and fired at the guy on my left.

I heard the bullet impact and felt what I thought was brain matter splatter on my shirt an face. I heard dead weight hit the street beside me and didn't even wait to see if I'd hit the guy. I trusted my aim. I had to.

I whirled around and pointed my gun at the vampire's head. Too late.

He had Wufei and was strangling the crap out of him. I froze, not wanting to pull the trigger but seeing no alternative. I'd just hope that I was dead on and worry about the rest later.

"You know," the vampire said smugly, "if I tighten my grip anymore, he'll die. What would you do then?"

I tightened my grip on the gun. "Take your ugly ass out."

He laughed. "Would you, now? Well, that's a charming little tale, only you're wrong about the ending. You see...you're doomed to lose." His hands tightened over Wufei's neck, and I took a step forward.

"Well, you can just fuck yourself."

"Can I, now?" Another chuckle. "How kind of you."

His grip tightened again, and I saw Wufei flinch as he struggled to free himself from the grip of the vampire. His eyes suddenly took on this dazed look and his mouth was forming a small "o" of surprise, or fear, or defeat. It was hard to tell.

By this time, my heart was pounding and I couldn't take it anymore. I fired. The bullet hit the vampire in the shoulder and he cursed, letting go of Wufei as he dashed toward me. His foot landed square on my chest and I was slammed to the ground by his kick, winded by the intensity of the blow. I landed hard on my left arm and felt the bones screaming at me in protest as I struggled to my feet, just trying to breathe. I'd managed to keep a weak hold on my gun, but it wasn't for long. I was shoved to the ground again and this time, my head hit the pavement, hard. I saw stars for a moment and felt something smash down on my hand, forcing me to loosen my grip on the gun. He kicked it away and rolled me over with his foot, placing it on my back.

"How's that for you?" he asked. I could almost see his smirk in my mind's eye. "Didn't I tell you how it would end up?" His foot eased up on my back, but was replaced almost immediately with what felt like his knee. He was kneeling on me.

Son of a bitch.

"You know, I'm no one's doormat," I growled. His hand gripped the back of my neck, forcing my face even further down into the asphalt. This was getting pretty bad.

He smashed my head into the concrete again and the stars came back. "Your little sense of humor is likely to get you killed. I'm surprised it hasn't already." His grip tightened. "But I suspect it will now."

I heard the click of a gun being cocked behind me. If I'd had any breath left in my body, I would have snorted at the thought that a vampire would be using a gun. I had to admit, I'd been expecting something more...creative.

"Say your prayers," he said softly.

_What a stupid line,_ I thought_. Like a fucking western..._ I had to stop myself and shake myself internally. It was unbelievable. I would continue cracking jokes until the end. Like a fucking comedian.

I felt the barrel of the gun press into the back of my skull and I closed my eyes. I had to admit, I'd thought that I would be dying in a Gundam...not here, with a gun up against my head.

I closed my eyes tightly. "Stop fucking with me," I ground out against the tar surface. "Just do what you came to do."

His voice, when he responded, was no more than the slightest of whispers.

"As you wish."

Suddenly, a bright light shone in the air. I could see it, bright gray through my eyelids. As I cracked one eye to see what was happening, I felt relief as the pressure on my back was lifted. I didn't want to move. I did not want to face whatever else was out there. I shut my eyes again. One vampire was enough for me. I didn't need the white light to fuck me over too. Besides, wasn't I supposed to stay _away_ from the light?

However, after a few seconds of eye and fist clenching and generally just expecting the worst, I realized that there were no sounds around me. No one moving, nothing clicking, no brains hitting the sidewalk...I was probably in the clear. Which meant I should get up off my ass and get the hell out of there.

I scrambled to my feet and toward Wufei, who was slumped on the ground, probably unconscious. I knelt behind him – no, I wasn't hiding; I'm not that big of a coward – to check him over and make sure he was okay. His breathing was ragged and forced, but other than that, there seemed to be no visible injuries. He wasn't conscious, but he didn't seem to be in any immediate danger.

The white light was still there, and I looked around for the vampire. He was gone.

Now someone else was standing in front of me.


	7. It's Just Not Natural

Disclaimers: I do not own Gundam Wing - only the storyline.

Author's Note: For those of you who got up to chapter six before I reposted, the roles played by Milliardo and Noin have been cast with original characters of mine - Anthony and Windoran. They are much more suited to the roles than Milliardo and Noin. Don't worry folks, I'll bring those two back in somewhere along the line. For those of who you are first-time readers, enjoy! I'm also looking to change the name of this fic to something more...catchy. If any of you have any ideas, drop me a line.

Pushing My Luck

Chapter Seven

I stepped back and stared.

There was a girl in front of me. And she had wings. Not like little bat wings. Like giant, feathered wings, white as snow.

This was some weird shit.

"Are you alright?" she asked me, concern in her voice.

I nodded, swaying on the spot. "Yeah..." My voice trailed off as the blood continued to pound through my ears. By this point, I was looking pretty crappy – my nose was bleeding freely and my arm ached like hell where I'd fallen on it. I was still holding onto my gun, which was a good thing, but just barely. I knew that I wouldn't be able to defend myself should anything else come along, but at this point, I was just glad to be out of the immediate danger zone.

I fell to my knees on the ground, glad to still have the ability to draw breath. The stars came back, dancing in front of my eyes, and I dropped my gun, shutting my eyelids to the world and waiting for the moment to pass. It did.

When I opened my eyes again, she was still there – minus the wings. I raised an eyebrow and then shook my head. No _way _was I going to ask. Too weird for me. I glanced around, searching for Wufei. He was slumped against the wall again, still unconscious. I checked his pulse and it was faint, but at least it was there. I cursed. We couldn't even take him to a hospital. It would be too risky should they decide to do a background check on him. I bent over and scooped him up into my arms. I'd have to carry him.

I felt a hand on my shoulder and flinched, shifting Wufei into one arm and reaching for the gun that I no longer had. I staggered back toward the wall and almost tripped over the sidewalk. The girl reached out a hand to steady me, and I let her. Really, at this point, I had no other option.

"Who are you?" I asked weakly. I really just wanted to go home and forget that this had ever happened.

"I'm Hilde." She smiled at me softly, and her blue eyes shone in the dim light.

I sighed. "I mean...what are you?"

She shrugged. "An angali. Like an angel."

I snorted weakly. "Sure you are."

She shrugged fluidly and ran a hand through her short dark hair. "Choose to believe what you wish."

"Assuming that I'm going to buy that story, what kind of angel? From heaven?" Wufei was beginning to get heavy and I shifted his weight in my arms, to no avail. For some reason, though, the answer to this question seemed very important.

She shook her head. "No. Not like that. It's a little different."

I frowned and felt Wufei stir, heard him mutter something incoherent. Q and A time was over. I needed to get him somewhere safe. The girl seemed to have picked up on my thoughts, because she said, "Let's get out of here. There might be more of them in the area." She then reached over and plucked Wufei from my grasp, holding him as if he weighed no more than a pillow. "I'll take him. You're injured."

I nodded feebly, not up to arguing with her.

As we trudged through the streets, I became increasingly paranoid. This was some serious shit. We'd just been attacked, Wufei was in critical condition, I was all banged up, and an angel, a freaking _angel,_ was carrying my comrade home.

We walked quickly, avoiding the shadows and the crowded streets. Really, there was nowhere I'd rather be right now than in the hubbub of the city with plenty of lights and witnesses around, but carrying Wufei through a crowd in his condition didn't really seem like a good idea. Too many questions would be asked.

We weren't too far from the school now; I could see the lights up ahead. As we approached the grounds, I began to relax, though only a little. We weren't quite there yet.

When we finally passed through the gates and trudged up to the steps, I was exhausted. I fumbled to pick the lock to the dorms, taking ten seconds longer than usual. My vision was getting a little fuzzy, probably because of the severe beating my cerebral cortex had sustained not twenty minutes before.

We trudged back upstairs and to my room. Wufei's single dorm was nice, but not if I had to sleep on the floor and watch over him. Heero wasn't home anyway; it was just safer this way.

Once in the room, the angel, Hilde she'd said her name was, laid Wufei onto Heero's bed. His brow creased, but he remained silent. I sat down on my bed and sighed, wiping some of the dried blood from my nose.

"Do you have a first aid kit?" Hilde asked softly. I nodded and padded into the bathroom to retrieve it. When we'd first moved in, we'd all gotten together and compiled one of the best first aid kits I'd ever seen in my life. It had everything we needed...but right now, I wasn't so sure it would do Wufei any good.

I brought it out and handed it to Hilde, who opened it, surveying the contents before getting to work. She took off Wufei's shirt and surveyed his chest; there were only minor cuts and scratches which she easily cleaned and bandaged. His back, however, had severe lacerations that took more time to tend to. His breathing was a little better now, less ragged, but I was still worried. "There's not a lot that I can do for his breathing," Hilde stated softly as she finished patching him up. "Remember to change the bandaging on his back. Those cuts are pretty severe."

"What the hell did that?" I asked wonderingly.

"Probably the vampire. Their grip is strong, and if you friend struggled, he was probably sliced open by the vampire's nails. They seem to enjoy that kind of physical torture." She said no more as she cleaned and bandaged his arm. When she was finished, she lifted back the sheets of the bed and took off his pants. I almost laughed at the thought of Wufei's expression should he wake up now.

When she was finished, she laid the covers over him and turned to me. "How are you?"

I shrugged. "I can take care of myself."

She handed me a tissue from inside the magic medicine box. "Your nose is bleeding again."

"Thanks," I mumbled, taking the tissue from her.

"You know, I'd thought you'd be different, from the description I got."

My head snapped around. "What do you mean? You've heard of us?"

She nodded, smiling slightly. "You're all rather famous in our world. Especially now."

I frowned. "Oh." I didn't really like the sound of that at all. I didn't want to be famous. And especially not in another world.

We both remained silent for a moment. For the first time, I looked at her. I mean, really looked at her. I was stunned to see that she was about the same age as me. Her figure was slight; he had dark, short hair that was a little longer in front and famed her face, and her eyes were a sea blue. She was pretty. I shook myself. No time for that.

"Why are you here?" I asked quietly.

"I was sent to protect you," she answered softly. "We call ourselves angali. It comes from the world angel...but we're not _that_ kind of angels. We're more like protectors."

"What are you, then?"

"We are the children of mortals and vampires." She bowed her head. "When a vampire fathers a child to a mortal, the result is what you see before you. It seems to be the natural balance of good versus evil."

I shrugged. "Okay. Whatever." This was still pretty weird for me. "So why were you there?"

She shrugged. "As I said before, I was sent to protect you."

I snorted. "Lady, there's not much that you can protect me from, or any one of us, for that matter." I managed a small grin. "We chose this for ourselves."

"Not the vampire part."

"No, not the vampire part," I said wearily, rubbing my face with my hands. Something suddenly popped into my mind. "What happened to the other vampire? The one that was attacking me?"

"I sent him away," she said simply. It was as if that was the answer to everything. Gee, Duo, what happened to all those OZ troops? I told them to go away or else. Ha.

"What do you mean, sent them away?" I asked. "You just asked them to step back? What, did you invite them over for tea later, too?"

She glared at me. "No. I used my power against him to get him to leave."

"What kind of power?" I asked. "You actual _power _over vampires? You ask them to leave and they do? I didn't think they'd do what you say. I thought you guys were...well...counter balances or whatever."

"We are," she said, her gaze not leaving mine, her voice forceful. "Each angali has that type of power over only one vampire in the world. He just happens to be mine."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why? That doesn't strike me as a very consistent system. What do you do, pick the vampire you want to get rid of?"

She shook her head and looked at the floor. "No. We can't decide. It just is the way it is. There is a specific vampire for every angali, appointed at our birth."

"How does that work?" This was suddenly getting interesting.

She spoke softly. "He's my father."

I sat back, shocked. "What do you mean?"

"What I said. In the vampire society, their policy about breeding with mortals is '_don't'_. Completely understandable, when you think about it." She shifted on the bed as if suddenly uncomfortable, and a long silence reigned over us. She finally spoke. "I have to go." She stood and opened the door.

At that point, I was too weirded out to do anything but watch her. Finally, my brain kicked in and told me to say something. "Hey, um...so thanks for your help." I didn't really know what to say to her. "Um...well...yeah, thanks. Really."

She stopped and chuckled. "Don't act so nervous. I'm just glad you're both okay." She winked at me and disappeared behind the door. "I'm sure we'll meet again," I heard her say in the hallway as the door closed behind her.

Something came to mind and I leaped to my feet, tearing the door to the hallway open. Shockingly enough, no one was there. And we're talking about a big ass hallway here. I mean, you could run it and still take at least ten seconds to get to the end of it. So she had done a serious vanishing act. I shook my head. All I'd wanted to know was the vampire's name...

* * *

The next morning when I woke up, Wufei was still asleep. I decided not to wake him up and skip school altogether. Not that class wasn't important...I snorted at the thought. And I'd thought I could do that with a straight face...

Really, though, I was tired from last night and my brain felt like it was leaking out of my skull. Plus, I wanted to keep an eye on Wufei. I'd figure out an excuse to give to the teachers later.

I went into the bathroom and turned on the shower. As I stepped in and began to wash my hair, I started to think about the night before. About Hilde. She'd seemed so...nice. Hm. Then again, I was still totally weirded out by the whole angali thing. It was...well...weird.

Rinsing my hair out felt good. There was still some dried blood there where my skull had hit the asphalt one too many times, and it was sticking to my scalp and beginning to pull at my hair. Nasty.

Once I was finished, I pulled on the clothes I'd brought into the bathroom with me; normally I dressed in my room, but for some reason, whenever someone was in the room, they had the most annoying habit of catching me off guard. That is to say, literally with my pants down.

As I brushed my teeth, I walked back out into the room and saw that Wufei was still asleep, though he was in a different position than he had been when I'd left him. He would wake up soon. Grabbing my hairbrush off the desk, I went back into the bathroom to spit and rinse and all that junk. I began to tug the brush through my hair and went out to sit on the bed as I did so.

Wufei began to stir and I waited patiently for him to wake up. As his eyes fluttered open, I saw confusion register in them. "Where am I?" he mumbled incoherently.

I winked at him. "Thanks for last night, baby. You were great."

He sighed and closed his eyes again. "I've died and gone to hell."

"Naw, nothing that bad," I said, grinning. "You just got strangled half to death and carried home by a pretty lady. She also partially undressed you, if that makes you feel any better." I began to braid my hair.

"It doesn't. And you're not funny."

I smirked. "Oh, but I know for a fact that I am."

"And who told you that?" he asked in a tone that clearly said that he was in no mood for play.

"Your mom."

"Ha. The humor continues." He sat up slowly and looked around until he found the glass of water I'd set on the nightstand. After taking a couple of swallows, he looked at me and spoke again. "So what happened last night?" His voice was still a little hoarse.

I related the details to him, and he raised an eyebrow when I told him about Hilde. However, he had the decency to wait until I'd finished to make any comment. And boy, did he comment.

"What do you mean, wings?"

I shrugged. "Giant, feathery wings. Angel wings. Or Pegasus wings." He raised an eyebrow at me and I continued. "Well, they weren't buffalo wings."

He rolled his eyes. "Fine. And what is this woman, anyway?"

I smirked. "More like girl. She calls herself an angali. The counterbalance of a vampire."

"Oh." Wufei sounded deep in thought. I knew he was listening – he was just processing the information he'd received over the past fifteen minutes. He'd have an answer for me soon.

But instead of responding quickly as I'd hoped, he swung his legs out of bed and stood shakily. "I need a shower. And food." He looked at me piercingly. "Shouldn't you be in school?"

I shrugged again and put my hands behind my head, raising an eyebrow at him pointedly. "Shouldn't you?"

He rolled his eyes and went into the bathroom without another word.

I grinned. Bugging him was just too easy.

After Wufei took his shower, we managed to get away from the school to eat. Eating in the cafeteria didn't seem like a good idea, since I'd told the teachers that I was sick and that Wufei had a family emergency. We'd gotten a transmission earlier that morning that the guys would be back the next day. That actually came as kind of a relief – it meant that they were alive, and also that we'd stop looking so suspicious. Hell, we were sure to stand out if we were always absent at the same time.

The sun was exceptionally bright today, and it was beginning to warm up. Finally, summer was approaching. It would be nice to get out of our jackets and stuff and feel some warmth. Then again, that would just make it harder to hide our guns...and boy, I sure was not going anywhere without one of those anymore.

We stopped at a fast food restaurant and ordered some burgers. Wufei had initially scoffed at the idea, and had actually put up quite a fight...

"It's disgusting."

I sighed. "It is not. Lots of people eat it, and you don't see them writhing around on the ground in agony."

"They're used to that crap," he said, one eyebrow raised, nostrils flared in what could only be repulsion to the smell oozing from the facility.

"Come on, man, what's so bad about it?"

He snorted. "It's ground up meat-slash-meat by-products, frozen up and then fried on the same grill as hundreds of other burgers. The fries are drenched in oil. Then everything is wrapped up in grubby paper and fed to us on plastic trays with solidified ketchup flaking off into the _real_ ketchup. The drink variety ranges from tasteless to sugar blast." He paused, to draw breath, I think, before finishing with, "It's just not natural."

I winked. "Come on, man, it's only like three bucks for a combo! That's value."

"Value is real food for real money. The only way that this could be considered good value would be if I was paying a negative amount with Monopoly money."

At this, I chuckled. "I see your good humor has returned."

He glared at me, ignoring my comment. "I will not eat this slop."

I shrugged. "Fine. I was going to pay for yours, but...suit yourself." I began to open the door, and was a little surprised to see that it wouldn't budge. I kept pushing until some unseen force came up beside me and knocked my hand out of the way before yanking the door open. Wufei pointed to the "pull" sign clearly displayed below the handle.

I scowled. "It's not like I'm totally incompetent or anything..." I muttered.

Wufei ignored me and followed me inside. "I'll have the number three combo. Medium."

I grinned. "I knew you'd come around, Wu-man."

We walked past me, pushing me off balance without even touching me. As I staggered around and tried not to look too spastic, I saw him head toward the bathroom. So I did what any mature member of society would do when embarrassed by a comrade – I flipped him off.

Once I'd ordered and paid, I took our trays and sat down in a booth facing the window out to the street. I liked watching the people walk by. It almost made me feel...well, normal.

Wufei soon slid into the booth beside me and I stood, grabbing the cups and going to fill them up. I filled mine up with normal coke...Wufei's would be a surprise. I debated whether or not to get him the pink raspberry drink for a moment before deciding to mix them all together. Payback for his little fit about fast food.

I sat back down in the booth and handed Wufei his drink before proceeding to unwrap my burger and tear into it. After a couple of bites, I realized that we were in serious need of napkins, so I went back to the counter to get some. When I got back, Wufei was staring into space, chewing slowly, and looking altogether thoughtful.

"Whatcha thinking about, Wu?" I asked around a mouthful of fries. When he didn't reply, I shrugged and picked up my drink, taking a sip.

Once the soda hit my mouth, I did my best not to gag, and almost succeeded. "Jesus," I said loudly. "What the..." My voice trailed off as I noticed that Wufei was smirking.

"I know you too well to leave you alone with my food," he said, sipping at his coke..._my_ coke.

I sneered at him. "Well, for your information, this mix suits me just fine," I said haughtily.

As we ate, I told him more about the information that I'd found in the little book he'd presented to me the week before. I was still studying it. Hell, it was interesting stuff, now that it was actually life-threatening.

"This guy, Ubithe," I said, taking another sip of what I'd dubbed the rainbow surprise, "He seems to be a pretty shady character."

"How so?"

"Well," I continued, "he seems to have disappeared under mysterious circumstances. He was only just in his thirties. He was supposed to be the best leader the Chosen ever had, and he just vanished. He had so much power, was making so much progress. Why leave that?"

"Maybe he got tired," Wufei suggested with a shrug.

I leaned back in my seat and stared out the window. "I don't think that's it. He's recorded as having a passion for the work. The way I understood it, the people under him feared him. He was unnecessarily cruel at times, and the Chosen still respected him. They loved the guy. Why leave all that power behind?"

Wufei narrowed his eyes in thought. "I don't know. He must have had his reasons."

I shook my head. "That just doesn't make sense to me. It had to have been some drastic change to make him give all that up."

"Whatever happened, it happened. Let's just focus on the present," Wufei said, effectively terminating the conversation.

"Yeah, fine..."

We finished the meal in silence, and only after I had rolled my burger wrapper into the tiniest ball possible did I grab the trays and empty them in the trash. As I sat back down in the booth, Wufei made a face.

"I feel like I just ate a pound of lard."

"Yeah, feels good, doesn't it Wu..." I trailed off as something outside the window caught my eye. That girl. I'd seen that girl before...

Hilde.

"That's her," I said, jumping up and rushing toward the door.

Wufei followed, a bewildered look on his face. "Who?"

"The girl from last night, man," I said, pushing the door open and stepping out into the streaming sunlight. It blinded me temporarily, but I didn't care about letting my eyes adjust, and as a result, I bumbled around and almost fell off the curb and into the street. That didn't matter, though; I had to follow her.

I walked hurriedly down the street, Wufei close behind me. He didn't ask any more questions, and I figured that he'd understood.

I searched through the throng of people and finally caught a glimpse of her – she was in a nice, white button up blouse and pair of black slacks. I smirked. "Corporate girl," I muttered to myself, picking up my pace.

We followed her for about five blocks before she turned a corner and was lost to all sight. I hurried after her, and when I got to the corner, I looked down it to see an alleyway, a short one. The only thing there was a dumpster overflowing with debris. No one was there.

"Are you sure it was this one?" Wufei asked quietly.

"Positive," I said, moving forward slowly. Ahead of me was a brick wall, just after the dumpster. I reached it and laid a hand on it, as if I thought that it would give me an answer, or anything but the dead end we'd just reached. It didn't.

"There's no one here, man," I said turning around. Suddenly, I heard a click and stopped short. There she was, behind the dumpster with a gun in her hand. And it was aimed at me.

I put my hands up and grinned. That's right. Turn on the charm.

"Hey, babe! Is that a gun in your hand, or are you just happy to see me?" I winked at her, and it had the desired effect. She rolled her eyes and lowered her gun as she stepped out from behind the dumpster.

"You shouldn't be following me like that. I thought you were the enemy." She raised her other hand, which I now saw had a paper coffee cup in it, and took a sip of whatever mocha-freaka-latte drink it contained.

"Well, shoot." I scratched the back of my head and grinned. "How come I always get pegged as the bad guy?"

Wufei rolled his eyes and stepped forward. "Excuse him. He's not in his right mind."

As I shot him a glare, she stepped forward and smiled at him. "I know. We've met. Glad to see you're doing better."

Wufei merely nodded at her. It was his cute little way of saying thanks. Like talking would kill him. Geez.

I shrugged my shoulders in my jacket, feeling the urge to take it off. And reveal my arsenal? Nothing doing. "Could we go somewhere to talk?" I asked.

She sighed. "I suppose we should." She turned and started walking back out toward the street. I shrugged at Wufei, and he nodded as a sign that we should follow suit.

Well. Finally we'd get some answers.


	8. As Charming As Lard

Disclaimers: Me no have Gundam Wing. Me poor-poor. Got any spare change?

Author's Note: Enjoy!

Pushing My Luck

Chapter Eight

We followed her through the crowds of people until we reached an office building. It read _Schbeiker Law _in tall bronze letters, and we followed her up the stone steps and through the tinted glass revolving door.

Once inside, I raised my eyebrows. It was nice. Marble floors, fountain in the middle of the room, the works. We walked past all that, however, and toward the elevators. The guard on duty outside of the elevators nodded at her and said, "Ma'am." He pushed the button for us and when it arrived, we stepped inside onto soft carpeted floors.

As the doors slid closed, an uneasy silence took hold. I wasn't really sure what to expect. Since we'd met in the alleyway, she hadn't said a word to even acknowledge our presence.

The doors dinged and I looked up to see that we were on the seventeenth story.

Another trek was made through the halls, all of which were lined with ornate paintings and other art forms. The carpet was soft and muffled our footsteps as we continued on, and the walls were a light cream color, a strong contrast to the cold metal walls of the last large building we'd been in. Every so often there was a small table against the wall with ornate flowers flowing out of it, real flowers, by the smell of it.

We finally stopped in front of a large wooden door, and Hilde pressed her finger against a slick metal surface as a lazer shone right into her eye and she clearly announced, "Hilde Schbeiker, and two guests." I felt the floor beneath me twinge, something that I might have missed had I been a civilian with no training whatsoever, and I realized that the ground beneath us was a weight mechanism. Only the most high tech facilities had them, used to determine if an intruder was trying to enter, should they get past the other various locks and whatnot.

The door slid open to reveal a tastefully decorated office with bold red and gold colors and wrought iron craftsmanship adorning the space. She motioned us to two cushy looking chairs facing a large wooden desk, and sat down opposite us in a large leather chair.

She pressed a button and a voice floated out. "Yes ma'am?"

"Any messages, Irene?" she said, her voice kind and firm at the same time.

"Yes, ma'am, several. Would you like them now?"

She flicked her hair away from her eyes with an impatient hand. "No, not now. Please bring up some refreshments for myself and my guests." She turned back toward us. "So. You found me."

I shrugged. "What can I say? I'm a smart cookie."

I could feel Wufei shift uneasily in his chair and knew that he was silently disapproving of my mannerism. Well, he could bite me.

"I know you want answers, I do." She smiled at us, and her face lightened. "I'll answer what I can. Whatever I can't answer, we can work to discover together, I hope."

I smiled back at her. "Well, let's just see where we are before we go making any promises."

"I know that I left you in quite a hurry. Last night was..." She trailed off and furrowed her brow. "Well, it was pretty damn confusing."

"How do you know who we are?" Wufei asked.

She smiled. "We all know who you are...well, not your identities, of course. That sort of information is somewhat priveleged, conisdering your position right now."

"How priveleged are _you_?" I asked warily.

She shrugged. "I'm in direct contact with Milliardo. He told me to be on the lookout for you guys. The group of vampires that is focused on you is one of the few that we know well. It's also one of the largest and most dangerous in the world."

I leaned my head back and stared at the ceiling. "Why are they after us? We can't be the only people in the world that they'd want to go after."

She shook her head, still smiling slightly. "They're not _after_ you. At least, not like that. They want to recruit you. You are exceptional pilots and fighters, after all. Wonderful soldiers. Perfect to help them achieve their goal."

I shifted in my chair to look at her. "And what's that?"

Her smiled faded rapidly. "To take over the world."

I could feel my eyes buldging out of their sockets. "They want to Pinky-and-the-Brain our asses?" I whispered incredulously. I chuckled. "This is too good..."

"Why take over the world?" Wufei asked, ignoring my comment.

"They may not be human, but they have the same characteristics as we do, the same natures." She looked him directly in the eye. "They're greedy."

I shrugged. "Sounds like OZ."

"We think they're in association with OZ."

I felt something sink in the pit of my stomach. Lard? Nah. This was dread. "You've got to be joking."

She sighed. "No. I speak the truth."

At that moment, there came a knock on the door and Hilde pressed a button on her desk. The doors opened and a young woman came in pushing a silver cart with what looked like an assortment of beverages. Once she'd left, I accepted a soda as Wufei and Hilde both went for the tea.

"So, what makes it so difficult for them to get to us in our dorms while we're asleep?"

Hilde sat back and sipped at her tea. "They can't enter a human dwelling without first being invited. That's the rule."

"What happens if they do?" Wufei asked, seemingly interested.

She shrugged. "They die."

Wow. Time to take this conversation back to being at least semi-normal. "So," I said, leaning back in my chair and crossing my legs, "how can you help us?"

She put the cup down softly on her desk. "I can give you information. I can give you some answers. And I can help you fight them. I can help you fight OZ, too."

"How?" I asked. "Do you have some power over them? I thought that only applied to your father or whatever."

She smiled coldly. "My father is the leader of the group."

"How can you fight OZ with us?" Wufei asked.

"I'm a mobile suit pilot...for OZ."

"What?" I was more than a little shocked.

"I am. So I can get to them from the inside. I can help you out more than anyone else can at this point."

I sighed, defeated. "I guess so." I stood, looking at my watch. "Well, we need to be going. We've got a lot of stuff to do today." Wufei stood beside me, and we both shook her hand. "Sorry to scare you like that before."

She shrugged nonchalantly. "It happens. No biggie."

She walked us back toward the elevator and descended with us to the lobby.

"Quite a firm, you've got here," I said conversationally.

"It was my mother's," she replied distantly as we approached the glass doors.

We stopped in front of the doors and she smiled. "Let me know if I can be of any help to you." She gave me her car.

I grinned. "Will do."

We walked out of the glass doors and back into the sunlight. "She likes me," I said, as we descended the stone steps."

"Really," Wufei said, disbelievingly.

"I'm a charming guy."

"Yeah. As charming as lard."

* * *

Back at the dorms, we were both surprised to see that the other guys had already gotten back and were gathered in my and Heero's room.

"Hey, guys, you're early! How was the mission?"

"Complete," Heero said.

I rolled my eyes. "So...when did you get back?"

"Just now," Trowa said. "Let's go out and get something to eat."

I raised an eyebrow. "Well, Wufei and I just went out."

Quatre spoke up. "Come along. We need to go shopping anyway. Why don't you show us that place downtown that you like so much?" We'd just gone shopping the week before, and I was pretty damn sure that we didn't need anything. Something was up, and if they couldn't come out and say it, then that meant that the security of the room had somehow been compromised.

I nodded. "Yeah, okay. Sounds good." We all turned and left the room, not one of us speaking a word.

The atmosphere within our little possey was tense was we proceeded toward downtown. None of us spoke for the next twenty minutes, not even me.

Once we'd reached downtown, we picked out a crowded square and settled around a scupture that dominated the middle of it. I looked up at it and shuddered. I'd never pictured such a giant phallus in my entire life, but here we were, about to hold a discussion right underneath it.

"What's going on?" I asked when we were all seated comfortably, spaced far enough apart that we didn't look suspicious, but close enough to catch each word that was being said.

"OZ has managed to bug the room," Trowa said. "We found that out on the mission. We recovered the data that shows us when and where the bugs were installed. Both audio and video. We can't move them without alerting OZ."

I shrugged. "So, let's just change rooms."

Quatre shook his head. "We can't just change rooms...we have to leave the school. We're now putting the school in danger. The doctors are working on securing a safe house as we speak, about half an hour away from the city."

I sighed and looked up toward the sky. The sun was just setting and the warm glow was fading quickly.

"What else did you find out?" Wufei spoke quietly, thoughtfully.

Heero answered him. "OZ has been transferring a considerable amount of money to some unknown accounts."

Trowa continued his thought. "We think it's going to the Chosen. The name on a lot of the accounts is Ubithe."

I sighed. "Damn it." I rubbed my face with my hands. "This means that Anthony lied to us. That sneaky little bastard. Who else would be using the name of the most influential Chosen leader of all time?"

"We don't know that for sure," Trowa said, "but it looks like the most probable explanation."

"When do we leave?" Wufei asked, his voice devoid of all emotion.

Heero answered him as he stood and made to leave. "Tonight."

* * *

When we got back to the rooms, we all went our separate ways to pack up. Of course, it all had to be done in the dark and as soundlessly as possible, to avoid tipping OZ off that we were leaving. It would just give them another opportunity to come after us. Luckily, there was no evidence to show that they had heat sensors installed, so they couldn't see what we were doing in the dark. The audio devices couldn't track our locations in the room either, so whatever noise we made, they would hopefully think was just one of us moving around in bed or whatever.

We got to the room and waited about half an hour before we pretended we were going to sleep and turning the lights out. Quatre and Trowa would have turned their lights out about ten minutes ago, and Wufei wasn't due to "go to sleep" for at least another fifteen - at that point, he would come and help me out while Heero secured our vehicle. I didn't bother to ask if Wufei still had to pack - something told me that he already had.

Getting everything together in the dark was a pain in the ass. We had to do it silently, and while I was the master of espionage, it still didn't make things any easier. Getting our clothes and stuff together was easy – we always kept them in two duffel bags in the closet so that we could make a quick get-away, if need be. The problem was our arsenal under the bed and a couple of other random weapons that we'd stowed away under the matresses. We had another duffel bag stashed away that we put all of the guns, knives, etc. into from under the bed. Heero did that, while I went into the bathroom to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything.

When I came back out, I could tell that Wufei was packing up Heero's laptop and various cords by the sound of his breathing. He was keeping his breathing even on purpose, something that I never managed to do. Bastard.

Finally, all that was left was to take the matresses off the beds and gather up the rest of our weaponry. So far, we'd managed to keep quiet enough for no one to suspect that we were doing anything but sleeping.

Of course, I managed to fuck that up.

As I moved the matress, I tripped over one of the bags on the floor and it came tumbling down on top of me, making various squeaky noises. I managed to hit my head on the corner of the nightstand and cried out, reaching a hand up to make sure my skull was still in one piece. It was.

I could almost feel Wufei glaring at me in the darkness, but he remained silent. If he'd pretended to wake up and wonder what was going on, I could have at least said that I'd fallen off the bed. But no. He just sighed.

So my mind created a scenario and put it into play.

"Oh, Heero. You like it rough, huh?" Still had to make the spy think Heero was here...but I could almost imagine Wufei's shocked expression in the dark, and it took all of my willpower not to laugh. Served him right.

"Yeah," he said feebly, and I just barely managed to stiffle the giggle that bubbled up to my lips.

"So...what say you and me play a little tag in the dark?" I said suggestively in my best bedroom voice.

I could almost feel the disapproval rolling off of Wufei in waves, but he answered me nonetheless. "Why not?"

So as we finished packing, we made random noises and comments that made it sound like we were having...well, a jolly good time.

At one point, I said, "Oh, Heero baby, give it to me just like _that_," and moaned in what would have been ecstasy, had I not been packing loaded guns into a duffle bag. When I heaved the matress back up onto the bed, I gave a muffled grunt as it flopped back into place.

I had to admit, though, Wufei was playing his part. He kept up with the moans and grunts that were issuing from my lips into the darkness, and I knew I would pay dearly later for what I'd done. I didn't care; it was totally worth it.

Opening the door into the lighted corridor seemed like a prime way to give us away, so I started to move the bags toward the window and get out the ropes we'd need to climb down the building.

Finally, we finished up, and as we crawled around in the dark, making sure we'd left no trace of ourselves, I decided to fake climax, just to see what Wufei would do.

"Oh, Heero, that's the spot...yeah...oh...I'm gonna come...yeah...oh _yeah..._" I ended in a loud sigh as I secured the ropes below the window and opened it gently.

And, dear God, had I not been trained as well as I had, I would have laughed out loud at what Wufei said next...

"That's my dirty little bitch."

I could feel my eyes bugging out of my sockets and had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep myself from breaking into hysterical laughter.

I felt him moving over toward me and I knew that he was just _dying_ to punch my lights out, but he restrained himself as we slung the bags over our shoulders and clambered out the window.

"G'nite, Heero," I said to the empty room. An immediate silence after such lovemaking would surely seems suspicious to OZ, and we needed all the head start we could get. Really, OZ was probably about as shocked at our "relationship" as Wufei was.

"G'nite," he said, catching my drift, and he followed me over the window ledge and to the solid ground below.

As planned, there was a truck waiting for us in the parking lot, already running, lights off. Heero was already inside waiting for us, and once we'd scrambled into the bed of the truck, we could faintly see two figures that could have only been Trowa and Quatre approaching. As they neared the truck, Heero turned the lights on and pulled up to meet them. They swung their bags into the back of the truck beside us and followed, landing gracefully beside us.

Heero pulled out of the parking lot and began to drive. He avoided the freeway and stuck to the back roads. We didn't want to get caught sitting unrestrained in the back of a pick-up truck, now did we? Especially with the cargo we were carrying.

We stopped after about ten minutes of driving and pulled off to the side of the road next to what appeared to be an old sedan. With no second thoughts, we all piled into it, Heero switching places with Trowa to let him drive, and Trowa flipped a bitch and took the next right that came up. Doubling back. Aha. Sneaky.

After another fifteen minutes we switched vehicles again, and by then, it felt like we were going around in circles. This one was an SUV, so it was at least more comfortable than the sedan or the truck had been. More leg room. Never underestimate the power of leg room.

The last time we switched cars, we'd been driving for a solid hour. This time, we pulled into a small clearing that we'd gotten to by way of an old dirt road that cut through the forest. On the edge of it was an old shack that we parked the SUV inside, after taking the last vehicle out from inside of it. This one was a jeep.

"I feel like a used car salesman," I muttered to no one in particular as we piled into the jeep and Heero took the wheel again. Trowa locked the SUV and pocketed the keys, and then locked the shack up. This was the vehicle we'd be using to go to town and stuff; we'd be using the jeep to get to the SUV from the safe house. It was safer that way, and less likely that we'd be trailed back to our new pad.

I hate complicated shit. Then again, at least we had a car to get into town with. At least we wouldn't be hitch-hiking.

Finally, after only ten minutes of driving, we arrived at our new home. It was a small-sized cottage on a hill, quite a distance from the forest and closer to other rural homes. We unloaded our stuff and trudged up to the front door as Quatre felt around in his pocket for the keys. I had no idea how he'd gotten them, and I didn't bother to ask. Obviously, the doctors had given him instructions to pick up the keys somewhere, probably a safe-deposit box.

The door swung open and he flipped on the lights. It was nice inside. Homey. Cute. Warm. Almost comforting. Hardwood floors, covered by various soft rugs, a large, comfortable-looking sectional facing a fireplace, a TV in the corner. It was a little sparse but nicely decorated and looked like it would add some level of comfort to our lives.

Although, I had to admit, the idea of being out in the woods like this kind of creeped me out. I mean, vampires could come knocking at any moment. Then again, taking into consideration what Hilde had said today – that vampires couldn't come inside unless invited – I really had no choice but to relax. Inside of this safe house, it was only possible to die at the hands of another human being...or each other.

Still wasn't a very comforting thought.


	9. So Juvenile

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. At all.

Author's Note: Okay, guys, it gets a little weird in these next few chapters, I know, but I tried to make it all as believable as possible. Hopefully you all enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Also note that any errors, if pointed out, will be swiftly corrected. Just let me know if you find anything. Still looking for a better title for the story...any ideas?

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter Nine

As we picked our way through the house, we found these things:

-cupboards stocked with food

-two bathrooms, one on the first floor and one on the second floor

-a second floor

-three bedrooms

-a hall closet full of linen and towels and whatnot

-a laundry room

-three large hall closets

It was great; the beds were already made up and the kitchen was fully stocked with cookware. Hell, the bathrooms even had soap and shampoo and junk. It was a pretty sweet deal.

Quatre immediately found a nice little hiding place for our random weaponry under a floorboard in one of the closets – I had a feeling that the scientists had tipped him off on that one – and we immediately wrapped up each gun and knife carefully to ensure that there would be no damage done to them and stowed them safely away.

Of course, there was still the problem of only three bedrooms to be solved. After much bickering – mostly on my part – I lost the fight to obtain my own private room and ended up sharing with Quatre. Really, losing the battle of the beds didn't phase me; at least when I talked, Quatre talked back.

Heero and Trowa would be rooming together, and Wufei, once again, got his own private space. Life sucked. Welcome to my world.

That night we unpacked, or at least, we unpacked as much as we ever did. After a while, I wandered downstairs and flopped onto the couch. Wufei was already there, reading a book in Chinese. I stared at the characters for a few minutes and tried to analyze them...but no. A couple of characters were similar to Japanese...but while my Japanese was fluent, my Chinese was far from it.

Boring.

I sighed, hoping to gain some attention from Wufei, and as I did so, I heard a giant crack of thunder that caused the house to shudder.

A thunder storm was coming.

I peered out one of the curtains and saw lighting flash. About half a minute later, another crack of thunder followed. I let the curtain fall back into place and sat back down on the couch. Wufei was still reading. I was still bored.

I sighed again.

"What?" came Wufei's clearly irritated voice from behind his book.

I shrugged. "What makes you think I want anything?"

He rolled his eyes and set the book down on his lap, wedging a piece of paper in to save his page as he eyed me warily. "You've sighed twice. You're not doing anything. You're bored, and you expect me to fix it."

I grinned. "Well, now that you mention it..."

"What do you want to do?" he asked me calmly. This shocked me; Wufei was never patient with me. This was a first.

I sat up a little straighter. "What do _you_ want to do?"

"I want to read, but it's obvious that you aren't going to leave me alone any time soon." He placed the book on a table beside the couch. "So think of something."

"We could play cards," I suggested, producing a pack from my pocket hopefully.

He nodded. "Fine."

I said, "You know...we could make this a little more interesting..."

He curved one eyebrow upward. "How so?"

I shrugged. "Well...we could play with Jack..."

"What?"

"...Daniels," I finished sheepishly.

He rolled his eyes. "So juvenile."

I shrugged and began to deal the cards. "Fine. I'll save it. I could use it. Like maybe to spike your drink."

He shuffled the cards and delt them out.

"By the way..." he said slowly, causing me to look at him curiously.

"What?"

He snarled at me. "If you _ever_ pull another stunt like you did tonight, I'll grind you up and sell you to the fast food industry myself."

* * *

An hour later, Wufei retired to his room and Quatre came downstairs. "We've been chosen to keep watch for the first shift tonight," he said, handing me one of the two guns he was carrying before settling down on the couch and curling up under a blanket. Every time we moved to a new safe house, we took turns keeping watch at night for the first couple of days. You could never be too safe.

I checked my watch. Ten o'clock. We had three hours to kill.

I stretched and sighed. "Sounds good. So what do we do until then?" Another crack of thunder pierced my eardrums, and I flinched just the tiniest bit.

Quatre shrugged. "Play a game?"

I smirked. "I thought you'd never ask." I ran to our room, which lay on the bottom floor unlike the other bedrooms in the house, and returned with the bottle of Jack Daniels I'd been threatening Wufei with just an hour before.

Quatre eyed the bottle warily as I set it on the table. "We're going to drink on watch?"

I shrugged. "Just a small glass each. It'll take the edge off our nerves."

He twisted his mouth to the side as he thought. Finally, he nodded. "Alright...just one glass."

A couple of minutes later, we were each sitting with a glass of the amber liquid. I turned off the lights as Quatre investigated the fireplace. It turned out it was gas, so we could use it without any smoke giving us away. I imagined us sending smoke signals to the enemy; "Long-Braid and Desert-Flower are having a pow-wow. Vampires welcome. RSVP." Hah. Right.

The fire was soon on and we were curled up under some heavy blankets we'd found in one of the cupboards. It was cozy.

"You really want to play a game?" Quatre asked once we'd settled ourselves onto the couch.

I shook my head. "Nah. Too much thinking. I'm not really in the mood. How about some friendly conversation for a change?" I took a sip of my drink and set it onto the coffee table.

He shrugged. "Okay. What do you want to talk about?"

I shook my head. "You know...all this vampire stuff is really starting to get to me. It's like...like we're in the middle of a dream."

Quatre nodded slightly. "It sure does." I'd told the guys about the vampire attack and everything upon their return.

"You know, Heero finally came around to Hilde. It took a lot of pushing," I said softly...

"_She could be the enemy." Heero's eyes glinted dangerously from across the table at the little coffee shop we were in, just daring me to argue._

_I could never refuse a challenge. "She's not. She saved our asses."_

_He grunted. "She works for OZ. Anyone who works for OZ is our enemy."_

_I raised my eyebrows. "Remember when Trowa worked for OZ?"_

"_That was different," he replied, glaring at me ferociously._

_I shrugged and smirked. "So you admit, there's an exception to the rule."_

_He rolled his eyes. "You're impossible. We'll talk about this later."_

"_No, we'll talk about this _now_! She can help us against the vampire group! She can scare away the head honcho, and she can feed us information about them through OZ." I lowered my voice. "We can't just stop trusting people. We have to trust someone. Look at Howard...look at Sally. We trusted them and we did fine. We can't do it alone, Heero – you have to get that." I crossed my arms and waited for his reply._

"_We need more information on her. We need to know what side she's really on." He cracked his knuckles and turned to his laptop. I swear, he brought that thing everywhere with him._

_I sipped my coffee and rolled my eyes. "So go see her. The Schbeiker Law building. You've seen it before. Call her," I tossed him the card she'd given me, "and make an appointment."_

_He shrugged and took the card, stowing it away only God knew where, seeing as I didn't think his spandex shorts had pockets. Whatever. _

"So what happened?" Quatre asked.

I shrugged. "He met with her. All he said when we got back was that we could trust her...it was weird. He didn't even explain it all to me." I took another sip of my drink and set the glass down on the table with a clank.

Outside it was starting to rain; raindrops falling on the roof were barely audible, but they were becoming louder every minute.

Quatre lifted his glass to his lips, hesitating before taking the remaining swallow of golden liquid. He leaned back after placing his glass on the table and snuggled into his blankets even further.

I yawned and hastily covered my mouth. Wouldn't do to fall asleep on guard duty, that was for sure. I stood up and stretched. "I'm gonna make some coffee. You want some?" I asked Quatre sleepily.

He nodded his head and closed his eyes. "Booze on watch. Maybe that wasn't the best idea in the world," he called to me from the living room.

I shook my head and called back from the kitchen. "Yeah, well...I've had worse."

* * *

A few hours later, the lights flicked on suddenly and I half jumped out of my seat. Turning, I saw that Wufei was standing there, pistol in hand, accompanied by Heero.

"We're taking the next watch. Trowa will take dawn," Wufei said shortly. He was just as cranky as I was when I woke up. "You may as well get some rest."

Spotting the coffee cups and two empty glasses on the table, he frowned. "What were you drinking?"

I snorted and patted him on the shoulder. "What, you think we'd get drunk on watch?" I shook my head and put on my best incredulous expression. "We're not morons, Wu."

Stiffling our tired chuckling, Quatre and I retreated into our bedroom and I crawled into bed after yanking off my shoes and my shirt and changing into a pair of sweatpants. I was tired. Watch sucked.

Quatre flipped off the light and I could hear him crawling into the bed beside mine. "G'night, Duo."

I mumbled something incoherent – I was already being claimed by sleep.

* * *

The next morning, we woke up pretty late. Well, hey, ten o'clock is late for a Gundam pilot. Not that I was complaining. I like my full night's sleep just as much as the next guy.

When we got to the kitchen, we found that we were the only two awake and decided to get started on breakfast. Normally, it was strange to think that the others, especially Heero, had outslept me, but then again, it was probably the first night of relaxed sleep that they'd had in a long time. We all deserved at least one night of good sleep every once in a while...like, I don't know...once a year.

Quatre and I decided to take the initiative and cook breakfast. We got pancakes going, along with eggs and bacon and some toast. Wufei came downstairs about fifteen minutes into our cooking spree, and Trowa and Heero were soon to follow.

Once we were all seated around the table, sipping our coffee and serving ourselves, silence reigned over the entire room as we began to munch away. Actually, the breakfast was pretty kick-ass; I for one was pretty damn excited about it. Hey, it was better than anything the school cafeteria had ever served up.

Once we were finished, we began to discuss what we'd be doing for the day. Wufei, Heero and Trowa wanted to stay at home all day. I, on the other hand, wanted to go into town, and Quatre was on the fence. He said that he didn't mind either way.

Of course, all that was to be changed by the soft beeping of Heero's laptop upstairs. He went up to see what it was, and when he came back down, he wore a somber expression.

"Mission. Wufei, Duo and myself. Starting at twenty one hundred hours. We need to retrieve the Gundams today." He sat at the table and waited for us to reply.

I waved a tried arm in acceptance. "Fine. We can go now." No downtown for Duo. Boo-hoo.

Leaving Quatre and Trowa with the dishes and other duties around the house, Wufei, Mr. Personality and I went out to the garage to get the jeep started. As we clambered into the vehicle, I noticed something that I hadn't the night before; there were three motorcycles in one corner of the garage, with six helmets hung above them. It finally clicked in my mind why they were there; it made perfect sense, really – emergency vehicles. If one or more of us took the car out and something went down here, it left an escape for the other pilots.

I shook my head and climbed into the backseat of the jeep, strapping myself in as Heero started the engine and began the drive toward the SUV, which we would drive for the rest of the long, boring trip out to see the Gundams.

Well, at least I could see Deathscythe again. That was something.

* * *

After a long day of Gundam repairs and the like, we were finally ready to get going. There was no way we'd be able to return to the safehouse before the mission – the Gundams were a little obvious for our tastes, and even going without the Gundams would warrant a long trip that none of us were really up to.

So we waited around with Howard's people until go-time arrived. Howard's a handy guy to have as a friend – I swear, he's got shops set up all over the globe with some of the best mechanics I've ever met.

After checking and double-checking the Gundams, Wufei and I sat down to a game of cards with some of the mechanics. Heero, however, remained inside of his Gundam, reviewing the mission. About an hour before we were due to leave, Heero called us up and sat down to review the mission for the last time.

It was simple. An OZ base was stationed not far from us that was expecting a shipment of mobile doll parts. What made it so special was the fact that these were for the new model of mobile dolls, and it was the largest shipment on record anywhere. OZ was planning something big. All we had to do was destroy the carriers and the base. Hell, they were only shipping immobile parts. The only force against us would be the group of Leos and Tauruses from the base itself. Easy stuff.

Something niggled in the back of my mind and I gave an involuntary shiver as if someone had just slid an ice cube down my back. I shook it off and tried to ignore it, but something was telling me that this mission would not be as easy as it looked.

Finally, it was time to leave. We suited up and clambered into our Gundams, coding in the initiation sequence and waiting for the system check to complete. Everything was fully operational within two minutes, exactly as I'd expected, considering all the double-checking that we'd done.

I punched in the co-ordanites of our target and called out, "Ready to go!"

Over the crackling static, I heard Heero's "Affirmative," and Wufei's "Roger that".

We were back in business.

As we took off toward our target, I leaned back into my seat and let Deathscythe embrace me. Boy, it sure felt good to be out and about again and ready to battle. Being cooped up and inactive made me nervous, and when I'm nervous, I'll admit, I get pretty damn stupid.

After about half an hour, I heard Wufei's voice speak out. "Ten minutes to destination. Prepare to attack."

"Roger," I called back tensely. It wasn't that I was nervous – I was just ready to take some of my pent-up energy out on the Ozzies.

A bleep in the radar caught my attention. "Four carriers approaching from north-east."

"Five from the south," Heero said in perfect monotone.

"Seven approaching from the west," Wufei said calmly.

"Alright, we know what to do, ne, Heero?" I said, winking at his thumbnail picture in the corner of my main screen. He merely inclined his head.

"We'll get the base as quickly as we can, Wufei, so you can keep your eye on the sky."

Heero and I moved toward the base, increasing our speed somewhat until we finally came over it. If we could destroy the landing strip first, it would give the carriers no opportunity to land and it would keep them up where we could effectively shoot them down. Our next target would be the mobile suit hangars, and then we'd move on to the main office buildings.

Next to me, I could almost feel the tension in the air as Heero readied his beam cannon. A bright streak of light suddenly shot out of it and down onto the runway, causing an explosion of smoke and rubble. He kept shooting as he flew the length of it, and I waited behind him, circling the mobile suit hangars until Heero backed off enough so that I could descend without risking getting caught in the fire of his Gundam.

When he finally moved back, I advanced and initiated the missiles, which to my extreme satisfaction hit right on target and exploded upon impact. I cirled in a downward spiral, shooting enough to effectively destroy most of the mobile suit hangars.

But at this point, something was nagging me and it took me a few seconds to realize what it was – the sirens weren't sounding. They should have been by now.

In fact, as I drew closer, I saw no movement within the base at all – it was deserted. As I scanned the ground, I came to the sudden conclusion that even the hangars were empty. There was nothing here.

Checking the sky again, I saw that the carriers had increased in speed instead of slowing down as a result of our attack. Something was very wrong here.

"Heero," I called out over the link, "there's something - "

"I know," he said, cutting me off. "It's a trap. We need to get back up to Wufei, fast."

"Roger." We both shot upward and toward Wufei's location. As we neared him, I saw that the carriers were opening their doors – mobile dolls were pouring out. A quick count revealed that there were just over a hundred of them, making the odds far from fair.

"Shit," I cursed under my breath. Wufei was firing rapidly, but so far, he'd only managed to damage two crafts. It brought me to a startling realization.

We'd underestimated the enemy.

I felt like kicking myself, but now was not the time for remorse. We had to neutralize the threat as soon as possible, or face the prospect of a rapid death.

"Aaaaagh!" I cried out anrgily, thrusting Deathscythe forward to meet the threat.

Four mobile dolls had me surrounded immediately, and I swung my scythe around, blocking their blows. I felt one of them shoot and graze Deathscythe's arm as I slashed around with the scythe, ripping them all in half without bothering to follow their explosion patterns before moving on to the next set of dolls.

I knew that it was going to be tough at this point. The dolls were overwhelming, and we'd severely diminished our fire power by attacking the empty base. I shook my head and growled to myself, "It's like shooting myself in the foot!"

Turning rapidly, I slashed through another mobile doll, but as I did so, I felt the scythe being blasted our of my grasp by one of the dolls that was a little further off. I watched, helpless, as it spun off into space. Cursing, I used one of my missiles to shoot it down, but in hindsight, it was a wasted effort – one mobile doll was nowhere near worth an entire missile. But hey, I was pissed, and right then, that justified any and all of my actions.

Heero and Wufei were off to my right, and from my hurried glances in their direction, I gathered that they were having a tough time keeping the troops at bay themselves.

Three dolls swooped in on me from either side and it took more power than I knew Deathscythe had to bring myself out from under them and straight through their laser cannons unscathed.

I cursed and flipped in mid-air, leveling my own laser cannon toward them. I managed to knock four of them out of commission in the next ten seconds, and the last two I leveled with my last bullets. On the ground below, I saw the glint of light that showed me where my scythe had landed, but before I could move, six more dolls descended upon me, showering me with bullets and missiles and all kinds of goodies. I had to make do with what I had for the time being.

Fighting my way through them, I cursed to myself, yelling out at the offending suits. I was running out of firepower fast, and I didn't know how well I'd be able to hold them off until I had a chance to get to my scythe.

Suddenly, as if reading my thoughts, Wufei was beside me. "Get the scythe!" he yelled at me, slicing through two of the dolls with his double-ended beam saber. "Go!" he yelled at me when I hesitated.

I needed no more urging. Speeding down to the gound at a break-neck speed, I scanned the ground for my scythe. Finally, it popped into the corner of my vision and I darted down to grab it. As I did so, I my sensors beeped furiously; there was a suit in close proximity.

As I latched onto my scythe, I whirled around to face the other direction just in time to see a new model of the Taurus suit land in front of me. "Don't shoot!" a familiar voice called out. A thumbnail of the pilot popped up in my screen and I sighed anxiously.

"Hilde! What are you doing here!"

"I'm here to get you out. There are more troops on the way, and they're the new model of mobile dolls. They're far more advanced than these. You won't make it out alive! This is all a trap!"

I nodded. "I know. Let's get back up there!"

I shot off into the sky, Hilde close on my heels. "Heero, Wufei – Hilde's here. She says more troops are approaching." As my eyes darted around the sky, I saw that we still had another twenty dolls to defeat, and sure enough, the lights of approaching carriers were visible in the distance. "We need to get out!"

Before anyone could respond, at least ten dolls swooped toward Heero. The sudden impact on Wing was devastating – it took him plummeting down to Earth, and I heard him cry out briefly as he strained against the harness and was slammed into the cockpit.

"What the fuck are they playing at?!" I cried out angrily.

"Duo," Wufei called, "fight off the remaining dolls here. I'll get Heero."

"Affirmative," I said, nodding. "Hilde, you ready to fight?"

She did not respond, but set her lips in a tight line across her face as she nodded slightly.

Working through the dolls was tough work. They were fast and obviously updated models, even though they weren't the most recent.

A giant thud caught my attention and I risked a glance downward. Heero was pinned on the ground by five dolls, and another five were rapidly approaching. I cursed out loud and saw Wufei streaking along behind them. It was up to him, now.

I managed to take out at least three with a swoop of my scythe, and Hilde stayed behind me, picking off a couple of stray suits that were approaching from behind. I wiped the sweat off my brow and, looking at my hand, saw smears of blood on my palm. I was bleeding from somewhere, but I didn't remember getting hit. I felt blood trickle down into my eyes and brushed it away impatiently. I didn't have time for this.

My frustration built up within me and I finally snapped. My battle cry echoed over the communication link as I sliced through the last two suits in front of me and whirled Deathscythe around the get the last one that was behind me. My scythe sliced through the arm of Hilde's suit as it jammed into my target, and I cursed softly to myself as it blew up.

"You okay, Hilde?" I asked anxiously.

"Yeah," she said, sounding a little shaken. "I'm fine."

"Sorry about that. I lost control." I wanted to slap myself across the face. "It was a stupid mistake."

"I'm fine," she insisted, forcing a little more confidence into her voice.

"No, it's not fine," I growled. "It could have been fatal."

"But it wasn't," she insisted firmly. "So let it go."

"The carriers are approaching," I said hastily, wondering what the hell we were going to do when they got to our location.

"I've got it covered," Hilde stated firmly. I could see her in the thumbnail picture that I had next to Wufei's and Heero's in my main screen, and I saw her bend over her controls. The clacking of keys invaded my ears, piquing my curiousity.

"What are you doing?"

"Changing the new mobile dolls' targets."

"_What?!_" I cried out. "You can do that? You're crazy! They'll recognize your imput code! You'll be hunted by OZ and gunned down!"

"I don't care," she said firmly. I heard a beep as she pressed the last key. "They may know now that I'm a traitor, but we'll die here if something isn't done! There are over three hundred of them on those carriers, and more reinforcements are supposed to arrive within the next ten minutes. Once they realize the targets have been changed on the dolls in the carriers, we'll have about a three-minute window before they readjust the settings. We need to get out of here _now._"

I shook my head. "We need to get to Heero and Wufei."

The lights from down below were quite impressive, indicating that the battle between the Gundams and the dolls on the ground was almost over. I streaked down toward the ground where Wing now lay immobile, Hilde hot on my heels. Wufei seemed to be having a tough time keeping the dolls from inflicting further damage on Wing, and I came in, scythe at the ready.

Within a matter of minutes, we'd reduced the remaining dolls to a pile of rubble. I quickly relayed the situation to Wufei as I latched onto Wing and we began to make our hasty retreat.

Wufei followed behind us, firing shots off toward the carriers in order to delay their approach. His aim was true, and one of the new carriers exploded behind us into a ball of light.

"Let's go!" I shouted as we sped off in the sky, back toward what would hopefully be safety.

As we gained speed, I checked Heero's thumbnail in the bottom corner of my screen.

He wasn't moving.


	10. Girl Cooties Are Great

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine, nor will it ever be.

Author's Note: This one is a little on the weird side as well. Hope everyone likes it. Comments and constructive criticism are always welcome. Now – on with the show!!

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter Ten

Once we'd landed, Howard's people came rushing out to greet us and take our suits back to the underground hangars where they were normally stored. Heero still hadn't woken up and I was getting worried. Before we left for the safehouse, there was a debate about what to do with Hilde.

"She can't come back with us!" Wufei hissed at me. "The safe-house is for us alone!"

My gaze flicked quickly over to Hilde and then back to Wufei. "She has nowhere else to go. She'll have been branded as a traitor by now. OZ will be looking everywhere for her. If she goes back to civilization, she dies." I looked at Hilde, now conversing with one of the mechanics. She was favoring one leg, and seemed to be refraining from using her left arm. With my eyes still on her form, I continued. "We haven't really got a choice. Without her...we'll never defeat the vampires."

Wufei rubbed his face with his hands tiredly. "Heero will kill you for this. You know that, right?"

I shrugged. "He'll understand. He knows we can trust her. Besides," I added with a dismissive wave of my hand, "he's in no position to complain. Without her, we would have died out there. You know that as well as I do."

Wufei sighed. "You're impossible, you know that?"

I gave a half-hearted grin. "I'm reminded of the fact on a daily basis."

After a long pause, Wufei spoke. "We still can't reveal our location to her. She needs to be blindfolded and handcuffed when we travel."

I nodded. "I know," I said softly as I began walking toward her.

* * *

I'd never been so happy to see a safe house in my entire life. As we pulled up to the house I noted that the windows were dark. The guys were probably keeping watch. 

It took a couple of minutes to unload Heero and carry him inside. Hilde wasn't walking very well by this point, but seemed determined to move under her own power alone.

"You're stubborn," I told her as I fumbled with my key.

She shrugged. "I know," she answered, leaving it at that.

I rolled my eyes. "You're just as bad as Heero."

This caused her to grin slightly, but the expression quickly melted off her face as we walked into the darkness of the safe house, Wufei and I each supporting Heero.

Quatre's worried face appeared out of the darkness. "What happened?" he inquired as we started carrying Heero upstairs.

I grunted in reply. "It was a trap."

Once we reached Heero's room, we laid Heero onto the bed as Trowa stirred, waking up quickly. "What happened?" he asked blurrily as we flipped the light on.

"Mission," Wufei grunted. "It was a trap."

"Yeah," I muttered angrily. "Ten dolls pinned him on the ground. We just barely made it out of there alive."

Beside me, I heard Hilde wince as she tried to balance herself on her feet.

"You need to lie down, Hild'," I said worriedly.

"Take her downstairs, Duo," Quatre said as he began to examine Heero. "We can take care of Heero. Put her in your room. I'll stay up here with Heero while Trowa is on watch."

A part of my mind was surprised to think that anything as remotely normal as watch still existed after the night we'd had, but after a moment I nodded in agreement and led the way downstairs. "Let me know how he is," I called back softly and heard Trowa murmur an affirmative response.

We began to descend the stairs, Hilde still refusing to let me help her. About halfway down, she stumbled, and I caught her. From then on, I insisted on helping her to the room. She glared at me halfheartedly, but relaxed considerably as we completed the short journey to my room.

Once she was lying on Quatre's bed, I insisted on examining her.

"I'm fine," she protested grumpily.

"You can't walk in a straight line," I pointed out.

She grumbled and moaned, but finally agreed to let me take a look at her.

She didn't seem too bad, but her left arm was severely bruised, as well as her leg. "What happened?" I asked her.

She sighed in obvious frustration. "The dolls were harder to fight off than I'd thought. While I was keeping them off your back, they got in a couple of pretty good blows. I wrenched my leg when one of their shots hit me, and my arm slammed into the cockpit system when you went through me to get to that last doll."

I bit my lip as I continued my examination of her. "I'm sorry about that. Like I said, I wasn't thinking."

She shrugged and fixed her gaze on the ceiling. "It happens. It's no biggie."

I snorted. "Of course it is."

She didn't respond.

"Take your jacket off for me. I can't get a good look at that arm with it on."

She complied, holding back a wince as the sleeve slipped off her left arm. Underneath she was wearing a white t-shirt, under which a black bra was barely visible. I saw that there were bloodstains on the shirt, in lines that crossed over her torso.

"Take your shirt off too," I commanded.

She regarded me, eyebrows raised. "What for?"

"It looks like the harness cut through and injured you. You're bleeding." At her hesitation, I raised an eyebrow. "Fine, bleed to death. See if I care."

"There's no way I'd bleed to death from these little scratches," she snarled at me as she twisted to remove her shirt. "And the bra stays on."

I smirked. "Aw. You know, you're awful' pretty when you're mad."

At this, she lashed out at me and slapped me in the ribs with the back of her hand. "Asshole." I could tell she was trying not to smile.

I grinned. "Ah, sweet terms of endearment."

Looking at her torso, I saw an almost exact imprint of the safety harness on her body. Along some of the edges she was bleeding, and under the blood I saw some serious bruising. "You need to be more careful," I said softly as I began to clean the wounds.

She winced before replying. "Look who's talking."

I snorted. "You're even more impossible than I am." I finished checking her over. "You're arm doesn't appear to be broken. If you can still move it, it's probably just twisted and should heal on its own. Same for your leg. Just a lot of severe bruising."

Once I'd finished cleaning and bandaging her wounds, I gave her a pair of my sweat pants and a t-shirt. "You can sleep in these. We'll get your clothes cleaned tomorrow."

I tromped into the bathroom and stripped down to my boxers. I began to brush my teeth as I contemplated taking my hair down and brushing it out. Nah. I'd do it tomorrow.

I bent down to spit in the sink, and when I came back up, there was another reflection staring at me in the mirror.

I jumped and turned around. "Hilde, what's wrong with you? Trying to give me a heart attack?"

She shook her head and smirked. "I just wondered if you had a toothbrush I could use." When I raised an eyebrow at her, she continued. "I do have my own personal hygine habits, you know."

"Oh," I said, mildly surprised. I hadn't thought about giving her a toothbrush or anything. "Well...we don't really have a spare one around here...in fact, we're due to go to town and get some supplies tomorrow. I mean, unless you want to use mine, there's - "

"That's fine," she said, cutting me off. "At least, if you can handle girl cooties."

I snorted and a bubble of toothpaste popped on my bottom lip. "Well, m'lady, I hope that you can handle my boy germs. I, on the other hand, am just _fine_ with your cooties. Girl cooties are great." I started brushing again.

She shrugged. "It's all the same to me, as long as I don't get infected with your manliness and grow a penis overnight."

I started in shocked disbelief and half-choked on my brush. "Yeah, wouldn't want _that_ to happen." I shook my head and began to rinse my mouth out, handing her the brush when I finished. "Toothpaste is right here. I'm going to get some shut-eye." I left her in the bathroom and she closed the door behind me.

Flopping down on the bed, I groaned and looked at the ceiling. I was so tired. In fact, it had kind of put me in a bad mood. On the bright side, I reasoned with myself, there was someone here to talk to – and she actually talked _back_. Even if we did bicker a little bit, it was playful bickering, nothing serious. There was also the obvious plus that she was _hot_...

No, no, Maxwell. Don't even go there.

I punched the pillow behind my head and pulled the sheets up about halfway. It was kind of hot in the room...in fact, the whole house was hot. Summer was a'comin'. Finally.

When Hilde finished in the bathroom, I was already halfway asleep. She crawled into her bed and flipped off the light that stood on the table between us.

After a few seconds of silence, she spoke quitely. "Duo?"

I mumbled, "Yeah?"

There was a pause. Then...

"Thank you."

I grinned into my pillow. "No problem, babe."

* * *

The next day came a little too quickly for my liking. While I was content to lie in bed and doze for a couple more hours, Quatre seemed insistent that we all wake up to enjoy the beautiful day. Oh. Right. We had to go get supplies. Again. 

Agh.

I stood up groggily and heard Hilde stir beside me. "You can sleep, at least," I told her grumpily.

She sat up in bed. "No, I'd rather get up. I'm not that tired. Is there a towel that I could use? I need a shower." Ugh. She was obviously a morning person.

I shrugged and pointed to the bathroom. "There should be a clean one in the cupboard on the first shelf."

She grinned at me in response, and I nodded half-heartedly as I trudged into the kitchen for breakfast.

I sat at the table and poured myself a bowl of cereal. Wufei was sitting there reading the paper, and Trowa was drinking his coffee without a word to anyone. Hell, I was no one to complain. While many people think that my need for human contact is insatiable, I am far from sociable in the morning, especially the morning after a mission. In fact, I'm just downright cranky.

Gobbling down my cereal, my thoughts turned to Heero. I wondered how he was doing. Quatre was conspiciously absent at the table, so I figured that he was probably upstairs with Spandex Man. Out of all of us, Quatre was the most like a mother hen – if you were injured or depressed, Quatre was your man.

After I finished my cereal, I put my bowl in the sink and trudged upstairs to see how Heero was doing.

The door was slightly ajar and I pushed it open carefully. Sure enough, Quatre was there with Heero, who was obviously sleeping, and seemed to be examining him further.

"How's it going?" I asked him in a soft whisper, closing the door gently behind me.

Quatre turned to me and shrugged. "He's going to be fine. He's just been put through quite an ordeal. Amazingly enough, nothing seems to be broken. Just some major bruising, minor cuts and scrapes, and a mild concussion. It'll be time to wake him up again in about another half an hour."

I looked at Quatre through the dim lighting in the room – he looked exhausted.

"Did you get any sleep last night?" I asked him carefully.

He shook his head. "Trowa was on watch and Wufei was asleep. I figured that since you and Wufei had gone on the mission, you should be allowed to rest."

I snorted. "You're even stupider than I thought. You have to rest, Q-man."

He sighed. "I know."

I shook my head and rested a hand on his shoulder, propelling him toward the door. "Sleep in Wufei's room for a while. It'll be quieter and Wufei will understand. Let him take care of Heero for a while. I'm going into town today to get some more supplies." I opened the door to Wufei's room and nudged him inside. "Stop worrying. You're not the only person here who can help Heero, so stop acting like it." I winked at him as he sat down on Wufei's perfectly made bed.

He looked down at the floor. "Thanks, Duo."

I smiled smugly. "You know, you're the second person to thank me this week. I should keep up my good work around here."

He smiled tiredly at me as I shut the door. "You always do good work."

Once I got downstairs again, Hilde was up and dressed in the same t-shirt she'd slept in and the pair of leggings she'd been wearing under her combat gear the night before. She was sitting at the table eating breakfast under the scrutiny of both Wufei and Trowa. I had to admit, I felt sorry for her. Those two together were like an entire interrogation crew.

"Wufei, Quatre's resting in your bed. I figured it was the quietest room in the house." I leaned against the doorframe as I spoke and crossed my arms.

Wufei merely nodded knowningly – no doubt he'd seen Quatre already and knew exactly how tired he was. "Are you still going into town for supplies?" he asked as he stood and took his dishes to the sink.

I nodded. "Yeah. Anybody want to come with me?"

Wufei shrugged. "I'll stay and look after Heero."

At this point, Trowa stood too, making his way over to the sink and beginning to fill it up with hot water. "I'll stay behind as well. I want to clean up here and then check on Quatre. I'm sure he'll wake up sooner or later and try to overexert himself again." He paused, looking back at me. "Can you handle everything in town alone?"

I shrugged. "Maybe I'll take Hilde with me." She looked up as I said her name. "That is," I continued, directing my gaze at her, "if you want to come. If you'd rather stay, I understand."

She shook her head slowly. "No, I'll come with you. I need to get a few things in the city myself."

I nodded and grinned. "Great. Then let me just take a shower and we'll be on our way."

* * *

It was a nice day. The leaves on the trees were just coming in and the sun shone brightly. The drive into town wasn't nearly as boring as it usually was, but then again, neither was the company. 

Hilde was blindfolded in the car once again as a safety precaution until we got close to town. She seemed to be okay with it and understood that we were just following protocol.

Downtown was teeming with people, all coming in to spend the summer. It took me half an hour to find a place to park the SUV, and by then it was about eleven o'clock.

"Where do we need to go again?" I asked as Hilde pulled the list out of her bag. We'd all decided that she was the best person to hold it, considering my habit of losing little things like lists and receipts and socks...and Gundams...

She rattled off the address of our first and most important stop, a feuling station just outisde of the district we were in, and we grabbed the first bus we could in that direction. We had to get some stuff for the Gundams that Howard's people didn't have time to go after. Certain parts they could supply – others, usually the most basic and least suspicious, we needed to get ourselves. Couldn't have those guys running all over the place looking for basic parts instead of working on our machines.

Once we'd given the shop our shipping address, which was really an abandoned house close to the hangar, we grabbed the bus back downtown and went on to complete our "missions" of the day. We grabbed a couple of basic supplies, toilet paper, toothpase, shampoo and the like, stowed them in the SUV, and then went to have a quick lunch at a cafe nearby.

After lunch it was more errands – boring, tedious stuff that we needed to do to keep the house in order and all of our bills paid.

That afternoon we went shopping to get Hilde some new clothes. Apparently, there was no way she was going back to her house to get her own stuff, and after a couple of hours of shopping, it was six o'clock and I was beat. We trudged down the street with what seemed like a gazillion receipts and five million bags of clothes.

Okay, so maybe I'm exaggerating. Really, Hilde was a quick shopper and had managed to get another wardrobe together pretty quickly. It was a small wardrobe, yes, but it was enough to wear for a week without washing anything. After we were done, she took out the credit card she'd used to pay for everything and made a call from a payphone, obviously to an automated service that would transfer the required amount from another account and pay off her card.

When she hung up she looked at me and shrugged. "Hey, just because I'm going into hiding doesn't mean that my credit score has to suffer." She then proceeded to take out a little pair of scissors and cut the card into strips before depositing it into the trash.

I nodded as she did so. She was smart. Use the card once and then trash it so that it couldn't accidentally be used again and get us followed. I was, howerver, scratching my head at the thought that she actually carried scissors with her. That was weird. Even I wasn't paranoid enough to carry a survival kit with me...at least, yet. I wondered for a moment whether she had duct tape with her or not.

"Let's throw this stuff in the car and then get some dinner," I suggested. "We'll probably get back home too late to eat there anyway."

As we sat down to eat our hurried meal, Hilde and I started talking about various things. Of couse, we eventually narrowed the discussion topic down to the one thing we both had in common.

"You know, they'll come looking for me soon." Hilde took a sip of her water and sat back in her chair, avoiding eye-contact.

I nodded, chewing my food thoughtfully. "As long as OZ doesn't find you - "

"Not just OZ," she said sharply, cutting me off. She lowered her voice. "The vampires."

I jerked my head back in surprise. "What? Why would they come after you?"

She licked her lips. "They're allies with OZ. In fact, a lot of soldiers are vampires. They have to get their jobs somewhere, you know. As long as they're professional killers..." She trailed off and looked out the window toward the street, her gaze roaming across the cars and people that were hurrying by without a backward glance.

I sighed softly. "Allies, huh?"

She nodded. "Most likely they know I'm with you. They've probably put that together by now. I was with you when you were attacked, I was with you during the last battle...they're not stupid, Duo."

I rubbed my temples with my fingers and closed my eyes. "This is just like a fucking nightmare." I laughed bitterly. "Just when we thought it couldn't get any worse."

She leaned forward suddenly and placed her hand over mine. I felt a weird kind of energy shoot up my arm, but it was gone within seconds, leaving me wondering if I'd just imaginined it. She said, "I need to get my things together here and leave. I can't come back into the city anymore. It's too dangerous. I may have control over my own father, but if he decides to send others out after me, it's all over and I won't be able to help you anymore."

I looked her straight in the eye. "That isn't going to happen." I leaned back, releasing my hand from her grip as I picked up a toothpick and started chewing on it. "We're _the_ pilots, baby!" I grinned at her. "The G-boys! We aren't that easily found. This is how we've been living ever since we were born."

"Isn't that a little cocky coming from a guerilla fighter?"

I shrugged her off. "Maybe it is, but still, we've been doing just fine until now and I can't see that changing anytime soon." Something jiggled in the back of my mind and I went through the process of actually pulling it up to see what it was. Ah, that was it.

"The Chosen," I said suddenly. "What about them? We've been looking at some data we've collected and it looks like they're in with OZ too...lots of money being drained off to various accounts. Looks like they sucked us in to their big plot. A lot of cash is going to one particular fat cat who goes by the name Ubithe." I snorted. "If going by that name isn't cocky, I don't know what is."

Hilde straightened up a little in her chair and I glanced over at her. "What is it?" I asked. "You know that name, right?"

She nodded, paling a little, or maybe that was just a trick of the light. "I know him."

I leaned forward eagerly. "Great. Tell me about him. We need all the information we can get. Who is he, really?"

She licked her lips nervously. "He is who he claims to be."

I raised an eyebrow. "You mean he's Ubithe? _The_ Ubithe? The original, one and only, one-of-a-kind, genuine Ubithe? That would make him, like, over three hundred - "

"I know how old he is," she said quietly. "And I know who he is."

I sat back and waited for her to finish, sensing that the worst was coming. "And that would be...?"

She took a deep breath and spoke.

"He's my father."


	11. A Frigging Corn Field

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters...only the plot. Do not sue me, for I am frightfully poor.

Author's Note: I hope you all like this one. I'm going to updating more frequently from now on. This story is a little on the weird side...and I'm hoping to throw everything back to being relatively normal sometime soon. Have fun with this one. I know I did.

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter 11

As we neared home, I handed the blindfold to Hilde. She nodded and tied it on herself. Hell, she knew the drill by now.

We drove in complete silence; it was a strange sensation for me, considering that I was usually talking non-stop, but for some reason it seemed appropriate right now. We both had to do some serious thinking and start mulling everything over. Now, away from the distractions of the safehouse and other pilots, seemed like the perfect time.

Suddenly, the SUV lurched to one side of the road and I heard a loud noise, like a bang. We were moving bumpily now, and I sighed internally. Flat tire.

I pulled to the side of the road and turned off the engine. As I stepped out of the car, Hilde asked, "What is it?"

I leaned down and saw that the front tire was indeed flat as a pancake. "We've got a flat," I said. "Could you help me out here?"

She took off her blindfold and stepped out of the car. "Got any tools?"

"Yeah, in the back." I motioned toward the back of the vehicle and she went to get them. "Grab the spare tire while you're at it," I called as an afterthought.

She came back with the tools and the tire and I began to jack the car up. As we worked together, we didn't speak. It was complete silence.

Finally, the tire was on and we were ready to hit the road again. As I moved toward the car door, I heard a shrill cry from the forest that was bordering the right side of the road. I flinched, but shrugged it off as some pissed off bird or something. "What the hell was that?" I shook my head and started to get into the car.

Hilde, however, hadn't moved. She remained fixed in place, listening intently. "Duo..."

I leaned out of the car. "What?"

She looked at me, and I could have sworn that I saw a glimmer of...no...could it be? Was it...fear?

"What is it?" I repeated, more forcefully this time.

Her voice shook as she responded. "Vampires."

I shot her a look that was a mixture of surprise and fear. "Are you serious?"

"That's their call. They're here. And they're following us."

I looked around hastily. "But...they couldn't follow us if we were driving."

She raised an eyebrow. "You know how fast they are. They could follow a train, as long as it wasn't going too far. A car would be easy. They must have seen us in the city." She bit her lip and looked around, now fearful.

I felt like pounding my head against the car. This was not good. We couldn't just take off – we'd lead them straight to the safe house. We had to fight them.

I nodded. "Alright. Let's see how much these fuckers can handle." I grabbed my gun out of the glove compartment and cocked it, then took another from under the seat and handed it to Hilde. "Take this. You might need it." And the 'Understatement of the Year' award goes to...

She took it from me, looking at it as if it would jump up and bite her nose off. "Duo, I...I can't."

I looked at her, shocked. "What?!" I said incredulously. "Are you kidding me?!"

She looked ashamed and I immediately felt bad. "As a rule, an angali can't use certain man-made weapons against their foes." The shriek sounded again, closer this time, and we crept over to the opposite side of the car, away from the forest, crouching down onto the ground and waiting for the attack.

"And what 'certain weapons' would you be talking about?" I hissed through the darkness.

"Guns, mainly. There is one Japanese weapon that we're also prohibited from using, but it's not really that - "

"You can use mobile suits to kill these fuckers! Doesn't a beam cannon qualify as a gun?" This was unbelieveable. "You know, you could have told me this before. Your timing sucks, babe."

"So does theirs," she whispered forcefully.

I had to agree with that. "So...what can you do against them?"

She shrugged. "I can use whatever powers I possess."

I raised an eyebrow. "Which would be...?"

She peered over the hood of the car and then quickly ducked down again. "I can immobilize them one at a time."

I grinned. "You hold their arms behind their back while I deal the blows?"

"In theory, yes."

"Well, aren't you just a big bully." Things were looking up.

Suddenly, something landed with a heavy thunk on top of the car and we scrambled, she to the front of the car, and I toward the back. My gun was a'loaded and my trigger finger was a'itchin'.

It was on.

The being on the roof of the car jumped down and bared its teeth like one big-ass dog. I'd spoken to these things before on a vaguely human level, but I'd never heard anything in my life make the sounds this thing was making.

It lunged toward me and I fired, catching it in the shoulder. It stopped for a moment in surprise and then turned back at me with a snarl and leaped at me again, rage etched into the lines of its face. His face. It was hard to remember that these things had a gender.

I fired again as he reached me and the bullet grazed his temple. Completely nonplussed, he grabbed my wrist and twisted it as he forced me to the ground, simultaneously causing me to drop my gun.

And then suddenly, he was still. He was still snarling at me and his eyes were full of a fire that shook me to the core, but he wasn't moving.

Hilde yelled from somewhere, "Duo! Do it!" and I snapped out of my trance long enough to grab my gun off the ground and plant a slug between his eyes. He fell to the ground and twitched before becoming completely still.

One down, x-amount to go.

I ran back to the side of the SUV and looked around frantically for Hilde. She appeared at my side not moments later. "There are three more," she panted. I didn't bother asking her how she knew this little bit of information – the only thing that mattered right now was that it was accurate.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

She nodded, and as she did so, something lunged at her from above. Like a shot she was gone, and it took my mind much wheel-turning to figure out what she'd done; she'd grown wings. The same, bright, white, feathery wings that she'd had the first time I'd seen her. And then, like a flash in the sky, she was gone.

The attacker, however, remained planted in front of me, a wonderfully dumbfounded look on his face. It passed quickly, though, as he spotted me and made his attack. Jumping on me, he forced the two of us into a frantic roll as I struggled to keep my gun. His first thought was obviously to disarm me and he did his damn best as he pinned me on the ground and sat on my back, crushing my arm until I let my weapon go. He pulled my arms behind my back as I ate asphalt for a moment, but this was the opportunity I'd been waiting for – my backup weapon was tucked into my waistband. I twisted my arm behind me with strength that I hadn't known I possessed and latched onto the gun to shoot him in the gut before he knew what hit him. He fell to the side, clutching his stomach as I emptied the clip into his skull.

I reached into my pocket and grabbed another round, slamming it home with extreme satisfaction. Whirling, I waited for the next opponent...but he never came.

Crouched behind the SUV I pondered my next move. The world around me was silent and it was starting to make me nervous...and where was Hilde?

I looked up over the hood of the car and then ducked down again. I couldn't see anything on the other side of the car, but I did remember it being some kind of a field. I'd have to take my chances.

I ran around the back of the car, crouched low. I looked behind me briefly before proceeding forward and into...

I stopped short and stared for a moment in a mixture of shock and dismay.

Dear God.

A frigging corn field.

Just shoot me now.

"What a fucking joke," I muttered to myself as I began to make my way down one of the slim rows before me. I was nervous by now...really nervous.

Suddenly, I heard another cry rip through the silence and tensed, gun at the ready.

A rustling beside me caused me to whirl around and my finger began to pull the trigger...

"Hilde! Shit," I cursed in a harsh whisper as she appeared before me. "What the hell's going on? Where did they go?"

She came and stood with her back to me, and I turned as well until we were back to back, staring furiously into the darkness in hopes of detecting danger before it arrived.

After a moment she whispered, "They're around us somewhere. They're staying well hidden – they know what they're up against."

I raised an eyebrow. "A pilot with a gun and an angali with none? They must be having a bad day."

She didn't bother to respond to that, and we remained in darkness, awaiting the next attack.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, two shapes materialized on either side of us and I flinched. Even though I'd been expecting it, it still surprised me.

Everything seemed to be playing out in slow motion at this point. I saw the two figures close in on us at almost lightning speed. I fired at one of them, hitting him in the shoulder, I thought, and then fired again, this one taking him in the head – that much was obvious from the way he jerked back and fell to the ground.

I turned to face Hilde, only...she was gone.

I stared at the empty space she'd been occupying not a second before in surprise, and immediately heard a screech coming from nearby.

"Wha the fuck?" I started off toward the noise, pushing leaves and stalks out of my path as I progressed. Suddenly, I broke into a clearing I was shocked into halting on the spot.

The last vampire was on top of her, pinning her down with his hands. As I took another step forward, he ripped off her blouse and tossed it aside. Licking down her chest, he chuckled. "How's this for you, m'lady?"

She didn't answer, and I saw that her head was turned to one side, her eyes closed tightly.

He reached for her pants and began to fumble with the button there, and I snapped.

"Get the fuck off her!" I fired at him, but he was fast, and dodged my bullet. He came toward me at lightning speed, and I braced myself...

And then he stopped. He was still, just like the first one had been before I'd shot it. I levelled my gun at his head and my finger twitched as it began to pull the trigger tighter...

"Duo, not yet." Hilde spoke calmly and quietly, but it was enough to surprise me into almost dropping my gun.

"What the hell, Hilde?" I yelled, a little pissed by now. "Let's just kill the fucker and get the hell out of here!"

"I need to ask him something," she stated softly as she stood and retrieved her blouse, surprising me once again. "Then you can have your way with him."

I lowered my weapon. "How dreamy," I muttered as I waited to see what she would do.

She approached him and stared him straight in the face as he snarled at her, an expression of pure hatred on his face. "Why did my father send you?" she asked quietly, no display of emotion in either her tone or manner.

The vampire hissed at her. "You know the answer to that question, my pet." She slapped him and he laughed. "We are your warning. Next time, you will not be so lucky." He cackled, and then one of the weirdest things I'd ever seen in my life occurred;

He burst into flame.

I watched in shock as the flame quickly diminished and burned to the ground, leaving little left but a column of smoke that drifted ominously up into the sky.

Hilde relaxed, and her wings, which were still displayed, quivered as her shoulders sagged. She turned toward me. "He's gone."

I looked at her in bewilderment. "Gone how?"

She shook her head. "It takes a lot of strength to do that under the power of an angali."

"Do _what_?" I pestered her.

The words came out as barely a whisper but I caught each one of them. "He self-destructed."

I raised an eyebrow. "He pulled a Heero?" I asked, a little incredulous. "Kicked his own damn bucket?"

She nodded. "Call it what you will." As she turned her back and began walking in the direction of the SUV, I saw her wings disappear. They didn't retract, didn't sparkle, didn't go 'poof'. It was as if they had just ceased to exist – here one minute, gone the next.

I broke into a jog and caught up with her. "Hilde, what the hell happened?" She didn't bother to answer, and a moment later we broke out of the field and back onto the road, about a hundred yards away from the SUV. As we neared it, I saw that it was dented and banged up. Great, I thought with an internal sigh. Just one more thing that we needed to take care of.

I opened the door on the driver's side and retrieved my cell phone from under the seat. I dialed Quatre's number and he picked up almost immediately.

"Duo!"

"Quatre, chill. We're fine. Long night, tell you about it later. Listen, could a couple of you bring out some of the bikes...Hilde and I are stuck for a ride. Pick up the location off our GPS system."

"Al-alright." He sounded shaken. "You're sure you're fine?"

"Yeah, we're okay. Hey, could you call Howard and give him the same location? Tell him to pick the vehicle up tomorrow for repairs."

Quatre's voice sounded worried on the other end of the line, but he refrained from asking any more questions. "Sure, Duo. We'll be out right away."

"Okay, thanks man." I paused and thought of something. "Hey, Quat?"

"Yeah?"

"Bring some decent sized backpacks – we've got some supplies here that we can't really afford to leave behind."

"Gotcha."

"Okay, see you soon."

I flipped the phone shut and leaned against the car. Hilde was standing beside me, unmoving.

"Are you okay?"

She shook her head and ignored my question. "You don't understand. This is bad."

I turned toward her, and when I spoke, my tone was far from joking. "Then explain it to me. I'm getting pretty sick of being left in the dark."

She sighed. "Vampires only self-destruct for one reason, and they need consent from the Vampire Council to do so."

"Why's that?"

"When they do that, they send a message, one that relays select information to the recipient. Only suicide for vampires is special in more ways than one – with the message goes their power. And the person who recieves it keeps it. All of it."

"Wow." I leaned back and looked at the sky. "So...who was the message for?"

It was her turn to snort. "Not exactly sure, but I have an idea. I'll give you three guesses."

I sighed. "Ubithe."

"Right on the money."

She straightened and walked a couple of paces toward the road. "I should have just let you kill him."

I walked up behind her an laid a hand on her shoulder. "Yeah, you should have," I agreed softly. "But you can't beat yourself up about that. You didn't know he'd be able to do that while he was under your power."

She clenched her fists without looking back at me. "II made a stupid mistake and he got to me. He - " She cut herself off, seeming to think better of what she was about to say.

I shook my head. "You're only human." I grinned. "Well...sort of. And you're strong. We'll beat them. So answer my question." My voice became more forceful. "How are_you_?"

"I'm fine," she snarled at me.

I whirled her around to face me. She refused to meet my gaze but I pushed on. "Did he hurt you?"

She shook her head. "I told you, I'm fine." He voice shook a little as she spoke. I really wanted to push her further, get her to talk...but right now she was being about as responsive as Heero. "It's just been a long day."

I chuckled. "Try week."

She gave a watery laugh and stared down at her feet. "Tell me about it. Just when I think that everything is normal, reality comes and slaps me in the face just to prove that it isn't...never can be." She shivered and wrapped her arms around herself.

We stood in silence for a while, each thinking our own thoughts.

I was pissed, and to tell the truth, a little frightened. That vampire had been about to...if I hadn't come along...what if I _hadn't_ come along? Would he have...

Suddenly, all the rage built up inside of me, and it was all I could do not to scream. No one should ever have to go through that...ever. And she almost had.

My thoughts were cut off by the sound of two motorbikes approaching, and a second later they were pulled up beside us. Trowa got off one and tossed me his helmet. "You can ride back with her. Quatre has the bags."

I took the spare helmet off the bike and handed it to Hilde as Quatre got out the backpacks and moved toward the SUV. I helped him load the supplies into them and then strapped one of them on. He insisted on carrying the other.

"You give Howard the location?" I asked.

He shook his head. "Once we call home and give Heero the okay, he'll do it. Wouldn't want our conversation tapped and our location given away before we're gone."

I nodded. "Good. I'll give him a call now." I dialed his number and he picked up immediately with a distinct, "Hn."

"Hey, Hee-baby. Call Howie and give him the location. We're on our way. Hope you missed me."

There was a click as the line went dead and I smirked. It was so easy to get under his skin.

We clambered onto the bikes, Quatre and Trowa on one, Hilde and I on the other. She wrapped her arms securely around my waist as we started off. We'd have to take some detours to get there in case anyone followed us, but it would just give me more time to think.

Huh. And Heero said I didn't have the brainpower for it.


	12. Wonders Never Cease

Dislaimer: Me no havie nuffink.

Author's Note: For all of you who don't like the Hilde/Duo relationship – deal. Sorry guys. I just didn't feel like writing a yaoi today. But don't worry...nothing much happens. And Duo seems to LOVE cleaning...

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter 12

Once we got home, none of us spoke. We went straight off to bed, leaving Heero to keep watch.

Hilde went to take a shower without a word, and I went to take mine in the upstairs bathroom. When I got back downstairs, I knocked on the door. "Are you decent?" I called our with a grin.

She opened the door for me and turned away again without even looking me in the eye. I closed the door behind me and stepped over the clothes that were littered on the floor. Tomorrow I'd have to clean up.

I went into the bathroom and hung my towel up before turning to the sink to brush my teeth. My reflection in the mirror looked exactly how I felt – tired. As I finished and spit into the sink, I saw the light in the room go out and knew that Hilde was already in bed.

After I rinsed, I flipped the light off in the bathroom and made my way through the darkness until my knee knocked against the bed. I pulled my shirt off, leaving me only in boxers before I clambered into bed. As I lay back and looked at the dark ceiling, the image of the vampire on top of Hilde came rushing back to me and I felt all of my anger surge back.

"Hild'."

"Huh." I heard her roll over toward me.

"You okay?"

She rolled back over. "Fine."

Her tone clearly closed off the conversation and I decided to stop right there. After a year of dealing with Heero, I knew when to quit.

Well...almost. But then again, this wasn't Heero.

I sighed and closed my eyes. Too much crap had been packed into one day.

* * *

I had a weird dream that night. I was in a cornfield alone, and no matter which direction I went, I ended up at a brick wall, with nowhere to turn but back. The walls started to close in on me, and suddenly, something came swooping in on me and grabbed me with one smooth motion, pulling me up for what seemed like miles until all I could see below me was rows of corn, spreading out into the distance.

Suddenly, the cornfield stopped and a cliff dropped away beneath me, leaving nothing but deep blue water under my dangling feet. I tried to twist around and see who was carrying me, but it was impossible; their face was clouded in darkness. And then, just like that, I was falling...far, far away, down through the sky...

I opened my eyes with a small gasp and my head lifted about an inch off the pillow. I exhaled heavily as I rested my skull on the pillow again, before sighing and deciding to get out of bed. I needed some water.

In the bathroom, I stared myself in the face for a long moment without really seeing myself. "Damn dreams..." I muttered to no one in particular before splashing water on my face.

I re-entered the room and checked the clock on the nightstand; it was two thirty. Heero'd probably already gone to bed, and Quatre was most likely on watch. It was the last day of our customary watch-keeping, and I'd done pretty well for the most part, having had to stay up only one night out of three. I didn't feel bad about it one bit – after all, I'd been getting a lot more action that the other guys lately, and I don't mean in a good way.

However, as far as I knew, Quatre was sleeping on the couch, and I couldn't help but feel a twinge of guilt at that. Then again, considering the fact that I'd been on a mission and involved in a vampire attack in the space of forty eight hours, I didn't feel as guilty as I normally would have. Besides, there'd been a discussion the night before and it sounded like he was moving into Wufei's room and taking the spare bed in there. Problem solved.

I shook my head and yawned as I flipped the bathroom light off and went back to stretch out on my own bed. I was still a little uneasy as I thought back to the dream, but the details were already starting to slip away from me like sand sliding through my fingers.

I heard a rustle and a sigh from the other bed. It seemed that Hilde wasn't sleeping very well. After a moment, she moved again and mumbled something incoherent. She sounded...well, a little angry and a little scared.

She was dreaming.

Suddenly, she let out a soft yelp followed by more muttering, and this time I leaned in to see what I could catch. Me, nosy? Nah. I liked to think of myself as...what was the word...invovled.

"Don't...I won't...again...leave me alone...I'm not...I'm not..." Her voice trailed off, and I heard her give a soft sob.

Wow. This sure did sound like nightmare material, and I was willing to bet that it involved our little escapade from earlier that evening.

"Don't...no...no..." Her voice was a little hoarse, and I heard another sob break out from her side of the room. She rolled over and I heard her pillow fall off the bed. "Don't leave me here..."

Time to intervene.

I swung my legs over the bed and sat on the edge as I reached a hand out and placed it on her shoulder, giving a soft shake. "Hilde...Hilde, wake up. You're dreaming."

She gave a gasp and sat bolt upright, causing me to flinch back. She looked around for a moment as if unsure of her surroundings. And then she did something else that just about surprised the snot out of me.

She started to cry.

I'm not talking just tears and snot, here. I'm talking incoherent, downright scared-out-of-her-mind sobbing. It shook me, and I couldn't even begin to explain why. It was strange but famliar at the same time, and it took me a moment to realize why.

This was the sound of pure fear.

I leaned toward her and put my hand on her shoulder. She flinched and shook me off, covering her face with her hands as she gasped for air between her choked crying.

A part of me sat back with a single eyebrow raised and wondered what the hell had gotten into her. I pushed that part of me away, however, realizing that she needed someone right now, something to cling to, if only for a little bit.

I moved forward and sat on the edge of her bed, encirling her with my arms. She resisted tensely for a moment before leaning back into me and I stroked her hair for a while.

"Calm down," I whispered reassuringly. "Just slow down. You're fine right now. Nothing is here. You're safe."

I felt her shake her head against my chest, but her breathing slowed just the slightest bit and her sobs began to subside. I leaned her back until she was lying down again and sat there for a few more minutes, whispering the few words of reassurement that I could think of.

Contrary to popular belief, I really wasn't the best person to deal with the emotions of others. That was Quatre's department, but seeing as he wasn't here, I would have to do. Someone crying in front of me usually made me feel uncomfortable, and I could never figure out what to do. I just always figured that it was something I couldn't fix, something that was beyond my control. In no way did I look down on those who let their emotions show – I just didn't do it so much myself, partly because after all this time of running and hiding and fighting, I couldn't really remember how.

As I stood up to go back to my bed, her hand caught my wrist and gave it a soft tug. She mumbled something, and I had to lean closer to catch it.

"Stay with me." She sounded half asleep. "Please."

I sighed slightly before smiling sadly. "Okay."

I lay down beside her and she curled into me, her breathing slow and soft on my neck. Her hands were balled into fists against my bare chest, and I put my arms around her tentatively.

I had to admit, it was nice lying there beside someone and comforting them. I hadn't been able to do that for anyone since I could remember; I was usually the one being comforted, and when I did have contact with the outside world, I left merely destruction and pain in my wake.

I felt like kicking myself when I realized how much I'd grown to like her, but didn't really have the patience for that mental debate right now. I'd think about it in the morning.

For now, I just settled down and closed my eyes, waiting for sleep to return so I could forget about everything until tomorrow.

* * *

When morning finally came, I woke up surprisingly relaxed. I looked over beside me and it took me a moment to remember what I was doing in Hilde's bed. She was still asleep, and I couldn't help thinking how peaceful she looked. We were more or less in the same position that we'd fallen asleep in, and I had to admit, I was pretty comfortable.

Well, once I had that thought, I realized that one of my arms was trapped underneath her and had fallen asleep. I mean, I couldn't have controlled it if my life had depended on it. I debated on whether or not to try and extract myself out from under her for a moment before the need to get blood pumping through my limbs won out.

I moved carefully, trying not to disturb her sleeping form. I edged my arm slowly out from under her until it was finally free. However, as I tried to lift it over her, my lack of control over the deadened limb showed as it came crashing down on me and smacked me in the face.

"Of all the fucked-up - "

"Hm." Hilde stirred and I fell silent. Her eyes opened after a few moments and she looked at me, obviously confused. "Duo?"

I grinned. "The one and the same. How'd you sleep?"

She looked at me for a moment, a bewildered expression on her face as she put the pieces all together. After a couple of seconds she smiled slightly. "Well." She still seemed a little nervous, but not so much that it caused me to worry.

I looked over at her and smiled. "I'm glad. Sounded like you had some pretty nasty dreams last night."

At this, her face darkened just the slightest bit and she sighed. "Just another part of the job."

"Yeah, this gig's bound to get to us sooner or later, huh." I rolled over and stood. "Well...this prince charming needs his morning shower." I winked at her. "Don't worry, babe. I'll make sure to leave at least a couple minutes' worth of hot water for you."

She sighed again, wistfully this time, and didn't bother to respond as I bounded off toward the bathroom.

It was nice to take a shower and wash off all the cornfield and vampire blood off. It made me feel human again, and not like the fucked-up killing machine that I normally saw myself as.

In fact...I was in a super good mood this morning. Not at _all_ like my usual self. I smirked as I began to massage shampoo through my hair. Me? A morning person? Will wonders never cease?

Of course, at this, I began to wonder exactly _why _I was feeling so good this morning. Was it because my brains weren't spattered all over a cornfield? Or perhaps it was the fact that I'd woken up next to a lovely young lady...

Crap. I slapped myself mentally. Don't go there, Duo. Just...don't.

This brought my mood down slightly, and no matter how much I tried to shrug it off, I couldn't help thinking about how nice it had been to be with someone last night...how nice it had been just to be in the same room as another person that wasn't about to shoot me. Maybe liking Hilde wasn't such a bad thing.

Or maybe it was.

I rinsed my hair and began to run conditioner through it. I know, I know. Guys aren't supposed to use conditioner. Guys also aren't supposed to have hair longer than their dicks, but here I was, walking proof that it could look pretty and manly at the same time. Go me.

Finally done with the hair ritual, I turned the shower off and began to towel dry. I wrapped a towel around my waist before coming out, and when I did, Hilde was nowhere to be seen. I shrugged. Maybe she'd gone to take a shower in the upstairs bathroom. Ha. I wished her luck getting it away from the Justice Puppy and Spandex Cheeks.

But something felt wrong, and as I looked around, I realized that I couldn't see anything of hers...anywhere. None of her stuff was littered on the floor as it had been twenty minutes before. Her bags were gone. And there was a note on the pillow.

I stooped down to read it, hoping beyong hope that the words I didn't want to hear were not written on that piece of paper. But they were.

_Duo – I had to go. Heero took me somewhere – don't worry, I'll be fine. It's better this way. I don't want to be any more of a burden to you than I already have been. You have a job to do, and I'm just getting in the way. We'll see each other again soon if we keep fighting for the same cause. And...thank you. – Hilde._

I crumpled the piece of paper in my hand and turned back to the bathroom as I tossed it onto the floor.

"Don't worry," I scoffed to myself. "Don't worry. She'll only get _killed_ out there, with those bastards after her. Don't worry my _ass_!" I slammed my fist into the wall. It hurt, but it felt good. I was angry...and a little scared for her.

Of course, my first order of action would be to beat the crap out of Heero and get him to tell me where she was. Then I'd go find her and tell her what an ass she was being, and that she wasn't a burden to us at all, and then I'd bring her back here and demand that she return my excellent morning mood...

My thoughts trailed off as I realized that none of the above were an option. Heero wouldn't tell me shit, and I would probably never grow the balls big enough to even try and take him on. Really, Hilde wasn't being an ass, she was looking out for our best interests, and Heero was likely to agree with the fact that she had, unintentionally, been a burden to us.

I could see that now. She had, in a way, put us into more danger. One part Angali and five parts Gundam Pilot was not a great mix if you were looking to be inconspicuous. She had stretched our living arrangements, yes, but I hadn't minded. There was a great difference, at least in my mind, between being an unwanted burden and a wanted one, but when it came down to black and white, she was right about this one, and I knew that if I brought it up to Heero and tried to weasel her location out of him, he'd make the same points, defining him as right – and boy, did it suck when Heero Yuy was right.

As I tugged on my shirt and a pair of jeans, I decided firmly that I wouldn't even ask where Hilde had gone. In fact, I wouldn't even mention it. That's right. If I did, the guys – namely Wufei and Quatre – were sure to pounce on me and make certain accusations that I was in no rush to face.

In the kitchen, Heero was still conspicuously absent, and as I sat down next Trowa and poured myself a bowl of cereal, I saw him glance at me as if expecting me to speak. I held my tongue.

We ate breakfast in silence, until the Silencer himself broke it.

"You know she's gone, Duo."

I shrugged and kept my eyes fixed firmly on my spoon as I brought it to my mouth. "I know."

I saw him raise an eyebrow out of the corner of my eye. "That doesn't worry you?"

I crumpled my napkin in my hand, refusing to look at him. "Of course it worries me," I said calmly. Slowly but forcefully, I continued. "But what the _hell_ am I supposed to do about it?" I pushed my chair back and took my bowl to the sink. I wasn't hungry anymore.

He came up behind me. "I know how you felt about her, and - "

"And what?" I snarled, my back to him. "Don't bother telling me that it would never have worked out, that I'm foolish to waste time and energy on something that isn't a war or a battle or a mission. I know that pretty damn well by now. So what else could you _possibly _ have to say to me?" I stared out the window over the sink at the woods that surrounded us. For the first time in my life, I would have given anything to be away from our safe house.

He rested a hand on my shoulder and it took all of my control not to shrug it off. Very rarely were any of the guys forward enough to touch anyone, and I, the closest thing they had to a normal person, was not about to tell them to piss off. It was just a line I didn't want to cross, for reasons unknown even to myself.

"Duo, I'm not saying that. I'm saying that it's good." He paused for a moment. "It's good for you to have...someone. Or even think of someone. It's not healthy for us to keep our emotions bottled up inside. We're not robots."

I turned around to face him and his hand dropped to his side again. "How very uncharacteristic of you, Trowa. So what are you saying?"

He looked at me intently. "I'm saying that you need to follow what your heart dictates. With no hope, we have no chance. Of anything."

I snorted and turned back to the sink. "Was I that obvious?"

"No."

"Than how do you know?" Geez. You'd think he'd elaborate on his own.

"I know because I talked to her."

I whirled around again, and he moved to sit at the kitchen table. "When did you talk to her?"

He shrugged and sipped at his coffee. "At night. She couldn't sleep the night after the mission, so she came and sat up with me while I kept watch. She talked about you. About how you treated her."

I sat down at the table across from him and put my head in my hands. "Aw, man, she must think I'm such an idiot."

He shook his head. "I don't think she knows. At least, she didn't talk like she knew. I think the feeling's mutual, however."

At this I looked up. "Yeah? What makes you say that?"

He shrugged. "Like I said, she talked about you. It was easy to tell."

I laid my head down on the table. "Well, none of it matters anymore. She's gone."

Trowa stood and began to exit the room. "She'll be back." He turned and left me to my thoughts.

When Heero got back, I made it a point to be in my room. I began to sort through the belongings that were scattered across the floor and put them into various piles – dirty, clean, and trash. The dirty and trash piles were much bigger than the clean one, I noted.

Once everything was sorted, I took the trash outside and returned to deal with the dirty stuff. After a moment of consideration, I stripped Hilde's bed and threw the sheets in with my dirty clothes before hauling it all off to the laundry room and throwing it in the machine. I punched the start button with satisfaction and returned to my room to finish up.

I made my bed and then started to fold and put away the rest of my clothes. When I was finished with that, I grabbed the vaccuum from the living room and gave my room a good once-over before moving on to tackle the bathroom. It wasn't that dirty, but I needed something to do, and cleaning seemed better than staring at the ceiling wondering what the hell I was supposed to do now.

Of course, all good things come to an end, so I was soon lying on my bed, eyes closed, and waiting for something to come and take me away from this giant mess that had the label "my life" plastered on it. Something to take me away...hm...like a hurricane. Yeah. I could leave my "Kansas" and go off to Oz...

Aw, crap. Go to a place called Oz _willingly_? Not in a million years.

I began to think about that. The Wizard of Oz...that could be Treize. The Wicked Witch of the West...gee, that was a no-brainer – Une. Heero was the obvious choice for the tin-man without a heart, Quatre was the closet we came to the Good Witch, and lost little Dorothy could be Relena. I smirked. Any one of OZ's soldiers could be a cowardly lion; acrobatic monkeys sounded a hell of a lot like Trowa, and Wufei could be one of the little munchkins. That would sure piss him off. Hm...maybe he was too angry to be a munchkin...

That just left the scarecrow without a brain...

Shit. Sounded a hell of a lot like lil' ol' me.

I rolled my eyes at myself and decided that too much thinking was, indeed, a bad thing. I stood and stretched as I made my way toward the door. My stomach was growling something that sounded suspiciously like "Feed me", and I was not one to deny my stomach the pleasures of food.

As I put my hand on the doorknob and opened it, I saw someone on the other side with their hand posed to knock on thin air.

Heero.

"Hey, Hee-man, how's it hanging?" I asked, leaning against the doorframe with exaggerated nonchalance.

He brushed past me and yanked me back into my room before closing the door.

"We need to talk."

He moved into the room and sat down on my bed, folding his hands neatly in his lap. I stood at the door in shock for a moment before moving to stand in front of him. I didn't say a word; for once, I'd let him initiate a conversation.

After a moment, he seemed to realize this and spoke. "We need to leave this place."

I raised an eyebrow. "Already?"

He shook his head slightly. "Next week. Our location will have to be compromised in one of the upcoming missions. We will be separated and moved to different schools."

I slumped down onto the stripped bed across from him. "Fuck. I hate school."

He shrugged and didn't bother to respond. No surprise there.

"So...we're all going solo?"

He shook his head again. "I alone. Trowa and Quatre will remain together, as will you and Wufei." He stood and made to leave. At the door he paused as if just remembering something. "Hilde will be contacting you again shortly after the move. Be on your guard. You don't need any attachments at this point."

I rolled my eyes. "I know, I know. Keep it professional. Don't worry, man, I know the drill."

He nodded. "Hn." He paused again. "Your room..."

I raised an eyebrow and waited for him to continue. "What?"

He looked faintly surprised. "It's...clean."

I grinned. "Wonders never cease."

At this, he snorted and left the room, closing the door gently behind him.


	13. What Are The Odds?

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing. There.

Author's Note: I had fun with this one, trying to capture the relationship between Duo and Wufei. I just hope they don't end up killing each other off...

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter 13

"Hey, Wu-man."

Through the darkness I heard a sigh from the bed next to mine. "What, Duo?"

"Are you sure you're tired?" I sighed and rolled over. "I'm not tired. Why do we have to go to sleep so early? It's Saturday night, man! Think about it. What kind of teenagers would we be if we didn't go out and get some law-breaking done, huh?"

I could almost imagine Wufei rolling his eyes at me. "We'd be obedient, inconspicuous, teenage students."

I snorted. "Sounds like one hell of an oxymoron, if you ask me."

"Well, I must be the oxy."

I sighed. "Ha, ha. And I'm the moron."

"Correct."

Wufei and I had been sharing a room for a couple of weeks now. After the last mission – in which I had not participated, much to both my disgust and relief – we'd left the safe-house immediately, deeming it to now be _un_safe. So here we were, stuck in another school, taking more boring classes and doing even more boring homework. Heero was off somewhere in Japan, and Trowa and Quatre were attending another school in Italy.

I, however, was stuck with the Justice Puppy in a city next to the border that stood between us and the Sanc Kingdom.

"Wu-bear..."

"That's not my name, Duo."

I raised an eyebrow and rolled over to turn on the light that sat on the table between our beds. "We're on a first name basis? Aw, and to think, I didn't even know you liked me that much."

Shielding his eyes from the light, he responded. "At the moment, I don't. And why do you feel the need to have the light on?"

I shrugged and propped myself up on one hand to look at him. "It enhances my conversational abilities."

At this, he snorted and took his hand away from his eyes, still squinting as they adjusted to the light. "Why can't you just leave me in peace?"

"Aw, Wuffers, now that would be no fun at all." I leaned back against the headboard, arms crossed behind my head. "So tell me – why do we have to go to sleep so early?"

He closed his eyes in what appeared to be frustration. "Because we have a lot of things to do tomorrow. So unless you have something that needs my immediate attention, I'm going back to sleep."

I paused as he rolled over and faced the wall. "Don't you get sick of this, Wu?"

"Sick of your constant whining and whinging? Yes," came his muffled reply.

"Not that. I mean...sick of _this_."

"What's 'this'?"

I sighed. "I don't know. All of this hiding and moving and junk. Don't you ever wish you were normal?"

He rolled back over toward me and looked at me seriously for a moment before responding. "I was a normal person once. Being normal is something that everyone has a right to. I gave it up so that other people can have their chance."

I made a face. "How righteous of you."

He turned back to me and scowled. "Five lives seems like a pretty good price for the freedom of billions."

"Sheesh, okay, I didn't mean it like that. I know that what we do is important. I just..." I shook my head. "I just want to be normal sometimes, you know?"

To my great surprise, he nodded. "I know."

"Do you really think we're going to make it through this thing alive?"

He shrugged. "Maybe...maybe not."

I groaned into my pillow. "Never a straight answer from you, is it?"

"Nothing is ever completely black and white, Duo."

"Yeah, yeah. Tell me about it." I punched my pillow and leaned my head back onto it. "Changing the subject, what's so important about tomorrow? What exactly do we have to do?"

"We're going out."

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"Because," he said with exaggerated patience, "I thought it might be nice for us to get outside and have some contact with the world beyond the war." He shrugged one arm. "You know, feel _normal_ again."

I grinned. "Well, that's pretty considerate of you. What brought this on?"

"I thought it would cheer you up," he admitted grudgingly, before adding more forcefully, "or at least shut you up."

I smirked at him. "Aw, Wu, I didn't know you cared."

He scowled at me again and flipped the light off. "I don't. I'm just sick of your whining."

* * *

The next day, true to his word, Wufei was up and ready to go out. It was kind of nice. We wandered around town and ate lunch at a place that Wufei deemed to be reasonable, and pretty much just saw the sights of the new city. I hadn't really been out yet to explore our new surroundings, and we really did need to know the area quite well if we were going to be living here. Didn't pay to be an ill-informed guerilla fighter.

It seemed to be a nice city. A real mix of people and culture. Good stuff like that.

Of course, our nice, relaxing day around town soon came crashing down around us.

One minute I was eating my ice cream, oblivious to the fact that we were at all times in mortal peril, and the next, my ice cream was tumbling down to the ground as my face registered an expression of shock.

"Windoran?" I choked out through a mouthful of rum and rasin.

She nodded curtly at us. "Maxwell...Chang." Today she wasn't dressed in the same boring outfit as always; she looked as if she'd just come from the gym, dressed in a pair of tight leggings and a small white t-shirt. Her hair was even tied up in a ponytail. Weird.

"Why are you here?" I asked her as politely as possible.

Her green eyes seemed to pierce me as she spoke. "I've been sent to follow you."

Wufei raised an eyebrow in disbelief and crossed his arms, assuming his manly, macho position. "Is that really necessary?"

She directed her gaze at him, but he seemed unaffected by her glare – hell, he wasn't too full of joy himself, so I had the feeling that he understood her more than I ever would. "The danger has become even greater. They are planning their next attack – on the Sanc Kingdom."

"You're kidding, right?" I said, jerking the conversation back away from Wufei.

"I am not, Mr. Maxwell, capable of kidding. I thought you would have realized that by now," she stated cooly.

I shrugged. "I wasn't speaking literally. So, what do you want us to do about it? I've got to say, this is _really_ a bad time for us, what with OZ fucking us around lately."

"They _are_ OZ. You know how many of them work for the organization."

Something Hilde had once told me popped back into my mind, and I sighed. "They're the perfect killing machines, the perfect soldiers. I know. I just don't see how we're supposed to foil their attempts here without more information." I spoke now through gritted teeth. "And for some reason, the information that we've been given is, once again, rather sparse. We need more to go on." I grinned at her menacingly. "You either trust us to do the job, or you don't."

She raised an eyebrow at me and tilted her head upward just a notch, giving the distinct impression of having turned her nose up at us. "It's not that simple, Maxwell."

"Then make it simple," Wufei interjected.

She crossed her arms and eyed us for a moment before speaking. "I've been sent to aid you. We are to," she paused, emphasising the following words with obvious distaste, "_help_ each other."

I glared at her. "In other words, you're here to babysit us, and we're still on a need-to-know basis."

She nodded curtly. "In a manner of speaking, yes."

At this point, I was pissed. I got right up in her face, which would have been easier to do if she hadn't been a foot taller than me, but I did my damn best anyway. "We may not have much of a choice in the matter right now," I said harshly, "but the first sign of us getting fucked over and we're out of here, regardless of the concequences. Your last little crew may have been eliminated, but remember, we're the Gundam pilots. People who get on our nerves tend to end up on the wrong side of the grass."

She looked down at me and, to my great surprise, nodded. "I know." She half turned away and produced a business card. "Meet me at this address tomorrow morning. Show this card to the guard; he'll know where to take you. Have a progress report ready. Then we'll begin planning."

And just like that, she turned and disappeared into the crowd. It was as if she'd just melted into the street. At this point, it wouldn't really have surprised me.

I looked at Wufei and made a face. "Just when you think that it's safe to go back in the water," I intoned as he partially raised an eyebrow. He reached out and took the card from my hand, ripping it from my grasp so quickly that he managed to give me a paper-cut in the process.

"Hey, not cool, Wu-dude!" I sucked on my thumb where the card had cut me and watched his face as he studied the card. He looked up after a moment, a faintly surprised look on his face, and handed the card back to me.

It had a time and date written on one side – tomorrow, nine sharp. I turned it over and saw that the heading on the other side was none other than Schbeiker Law. Holy crapola.

"What are the odds?" I muttered darkly as I stuffed the card into my pocket.

As we walked back to the school, Wufei and I made small talk. Our little encounter was shoved into the back of our minds for the time being, but I knew we'd discuss it back at the room. For now, it was nice to just watch the day go past and pretend to be normal for just a few more hours.

"You know, this isn't really making much sense, Wu." I leaned back on the bed and took a sip of coke from the can I'd purchased in the school lobby.

He shrugged and turned around from his position at the desk. "Maybe we're not looking at it in the right light," he suggested. "Maybe the Chosen isn't the organization we thought it was."

I bit my lower lip in thought and the can crinkled under the pressure of my tightening fingers. "Still, I don't really think they're the good guys," I mused.

"I didn't say they were."

"But I don't think they're necessarily the bad guys, either." I shifted slightly on the bed and took another gulp of soda. "Sure wish _this_ was black and white," I muttered. "It would make this mess a whole lot easier to deal with."

Wufei came and sat on his bed opposite me. "So let's declare them as neutral and remove them from the scenario for the time being. Concentrate on the vampire part."

This was why I loved Wufei. He could always put things in a different light. My Wu-bear – making the illogical seem logical since AC 195.

"Ubithe is out to get us," I said, standing to throw my coke can into the trash. "And he's got vampires willing to die for him in order to achieve his goal." I started to pace. "But what _is_ that, exactly?"

"I don't think he's trying to take over the world," Wufei said. "Otherwise he wouldn't be making such a big show of it."

"It's got to be something smaller than that...more personal than that...something hidden within the obvious scheme." I leaned back and sighed. "He's after something..." I shook my head. "I have to go back to the Chosen, here. They're too big a piece of the puzzle to ignore. They're not good and they're not bad...but they sure as hell aren't neutral." I leaned forward into a sitting position. "What was it that Anthony said about the facility? That it had to be closed down or something?"

Wufei rearranged himself into the lotus position and closed his eyes. "That's correct."

"So...maybe this isn't all about morals. Maybe it's about money." I shifted my position again and leaned forward. "Let's assume they're not closing down the research facility because they've lost too many men; they're closing it because they've run out of funding. But who was funding them?"

Wufei's face twitched slightly at this bit of information. "If they got any funding it could have been from a private party or a non-profit organization, but that's not very likely. The only other option would be - "

"A government program," I finished for him.

"Exactly."

I leaned back again and put my hands behind my head. "Here's a scenario; the government of whatever country has a serious grudge against vampires – who wouldn't with all that bloodshed – so they decide to do something about it. They revive the Chosen and back them financially. Only, the vampire they want isn't who they're getting – they keep getting a bunch of maniacs that do nothing except cuss them out and smash steel carts." I grinned. "We all know how well government officials take criticism." I winked at Wufei as he cracked an eye open before continuing. "So the gov says, 'Hey, we don't need this crap,' and shuts down the facility. They'll find their own way to conquer the beast."

Wufei sighed thoughtfully. "So why is Windoran in contact with us all of the sudden?"

I shrugged and grinned maliciously. "Well, it looks like the Chosen are trying to save their asses before the whole thing goes down. They threaten our existence and we agree to help them this one last time. We just get to save the world as an added bonus."

Wufei frowned. "Aren't we already trying to save the world?"

I shook my head and smiled. "No, that would be the universe."

"Of course," he said dryly.

"So that leaves only one thing to be worked out..."

"Which is?"

"Who, exactly, is backing them?"

Wufei straightened up and leaned back onto his bed. "Someone with money, obvious influential power...someone big enough to keep the Chosen on a tight leash – which means someone who could expose them. It's a person or organization that doesn't want it spread around that they're trying to exterminate anyone – probably a pacifist. I also think that it might be someone naïve enough to think that it's going to be an easy job."

I grinned. "And who do we know, off the top of our heads, that fits that description perfectly?"

One of Wufei's eyebrows came to linger a little closer to his hairline than usual. "You're not serious?"

I smiled. "Who else?" I sighed and crumpled the empty coke can in my hand. "Sounds a hell of a lot like Relena Peacecraft to me." I tossed the can and it landed squarely in the trash.

Yeehaw. Go me.

* * *

Later on that evening, we'd decided that it would be best to pay Relena a visit. Donning our most dashing attire, we took a short train ride into the Sanc Kingdom. When we arrived, we called a taxi and went straight to Relena's big-ass mansion.

Once the taxi had gone, we stood in front of the giant iron gates until a smooth voice greeted us through the intercom.

"Yes?"

I cleared my throat. "We're here to see the princess."

There was a pause. "Princess Relena does not see anyone without an appointment. If you would kindly call to schedule one, I'm sure that she would be happy to make arrangements to meet with you."

I looked up and saw a camera firmly fixed upon my face. An idea popped into my head. "We've got a message for her...from Anthony."

There was another obvious pause, and I was really hoping that it meant the name "Anthony" had been recognized.

"She is receiving no further messages from the party you speak of. Have a pleasant evening." There was a barely audible click and I knew that he'd hung up.

"Should have said it was from Heero," I grumbled to myself.

Now, normally, I would have made a big scene or something; instead, I merely turned and made a show of walking away. "Come on, man. No dice."

He followed me in what appeared to be bewildered amusement before stopping me about a hundred yards down the road. "You can't seriously be giving up," he said in disbelief.

I grinned. "Of course not. I have another plan."

He followed me as I turned back toward the large stone wall that kept us out of Relena's estate. "Does this plan have anything to do with breaking and entering?"

I sighed. "I see that I've become predictable over time." I looked at the wall in front of us as Wufei muttered something about idiots under his breath, and managed to spot at least two security cameras.

I grinned. "Now...the power source could be in one of two places – on the outside wall, or inside the grounds. I'm betting on the former."

Wufei agreed gruffly. We both figured that with high authority figures, the last thing they wanted was some repair man coming inside to fix the security cameras – that would best be done outside the grounds.

Soon enough, we found the box, almost hidden by ivy. It probably hadn't been touched in years. Sweeping the leaves aside, I set to work on prying it open. A simple combination lock was all that separated us from our reign of terror on the Peacecraft estate. I snorted. Clearly, they'd underestimated my ability. Then again, they hadn't been expecting a Gundam pilot.

I listened carefully until I was sure that the combination was correct; the lock came undone with a soft click. At least they kept their locks well oiled.

Once inside the box, it was a breeze. I pulled out of my pocket one of the great inventions of none other than Heero Yuy. It was a small silver object that he'd developed in anticipation of one of our missions, which had ended up not taking place at all. It was a machine designed to cut into almost any security camera's system and cause it to loop – that is, play the last minute of activity over and over again until we either removed the device or someone discovered it. Heero, after the cancellation, had seen it as obsolete; he was about as discrete as an elephant at his best, and had no reason for such a thing. I, however, had seen it to be a gift from God, and had swiped it right before he'd left for Japan. Boy, would he be pissed when he found out what I'd done. Still, there were a couple of continents dividing us, so I wasn't too worried about him seeking revenge on me. Well, not yet, anyway.

I attached the device to the correct wire, and nodded at Wufei. "All set."

We managed to scale the wall without much difficulty and were soon crouched low on the damp grass beyond it. There were no guards surrounding the building – they were all hanging out at the main entrances. I shook my head. Amateurs. They weren't running around trying to find us, either, which meant that the device had worked.

We approached the building slowly and steadily, sneaking around the occasional bush or tree in order to at least pretend like we were having a tough time staying hidden. Well, maybe Wufei thought it was necessary, but really, it was just a little extra fun for me.

Geez...the Gundam pilot wants to pretend he's a spy.

We finally made our way up to the building and moved alongside it until we reached the back garden. I knew the layout pretty well, considering I'd studied the blueprints of the place before we left. That meant that Relena's window was...

"One...two...three...there," I said confidently as I nudged Wufei. "That window." I shook my head. "You'd think she'd at least be on the second story or something."

I took a step forward...

...and all hell broke loose.

Lights came flashing on, guards with guns came running toward us out of nowhere, and a soft alarm began to sound. Oh dear. Lazer beams in the rose-bed.

I held my hands up immediately, as did Wufei, and we stood waiting.

"I thought you said that you knew what you were doing!" Wufei hissed at me through his teeth.

I shrugged and grinned sheepishly. "Hey, no one's perfect." I shook my head. "Well, except for good ol' zero one..."

The guards got to us in good time and surrounded us, aiming their weapons straight at our heads. That was kind of sucky.

"Hey, guys. Nice welcoming crew you've got, here." I grinned disarmingly at them, but I may as well have been smiling at half a dozen of Heero's clones for all the good it was doing me.

"Take them to the proper authorities," an approaching figure barked, but before anything else could happen, a familiar voice reached my ears.

"Leave them be," Relena commanded, walking out into the garden. "They're here to see me."

"But Princess, they're - "

"I think I have a better idea of who they are than you do," she said coldy. Her tone changed abruptly as she said more kindly, "Thank you for your concern."

She turned to us, one eyebrow raised. "You may surrender your weapons to the guards before we proceed."

I smiled at her. "What makes you think we've got any weapons?"

Her voice became stern. "Would you really like me to list my reasons?"

Wufei nudged me and I shrugged. "Hey, take it easy. Here," I said handing my gun to one of the guards. "Take good care of it for me."

After Wufei had surrendered his little arsenal, Relena turned on her heel and walked back toward the house.

"You may follow me."


	14. Do Tell

Disclaimer: Gundam Wing is not mine...blah blah blah...I wish I had something different to write her. I just can't be asked to invent any witty comments at this point.

Author's Note: To all the Relena-haters – sorry. I had to put her in here. I did, however, change her personality a little to suit my tastes. Oops. Also, I have been writing faster than I've been posting, so I usually have had a large stockpile of stories just waiting to be posted. This is, however, the last chapter I have written, so...that means I need to get writing again! I wonder what's going to happen next...

**Pushing My Luck**

Chapter Fourteen

I had to admit, though Relena had horrible taste as far as car color was concerned, her house was beautiful. It was all Spanish style – beautiful wrought iron chandeliers, terra-cotta colored tiles on the floors, beautiful art and vases all around...geez. Nice stuff.

As we walked through the house, none of us spoke, and Relena kept her back to us at all times. Heh. I guess she'd lost fear of one of us killing her a long time ago.

Finally, she opened up a pair of large, wooden, double doors and closed them again after Wufei and I had followed her through into a large, spacious conference room.

She sat at the head of the large table that dominated the room and folded her hands over the glass top. "I've been wondering when you'd be paying me a visit."

Now _that_ I wasn't expecting. My eyes practically bugged out of my sockets as Wufei nudged me none too gently to sit down. I pulled the chair out in front of me and sat, still surprised. "You have?"

She smiled at my shocked expression and nodded. "Yes. Tea or coffee?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Huh?" I said unintelligently.

She repeated slowly, "Would you like tea, or coffee? Perhaps something stronger?"

At this, my brain felt like it was going to explode. The Queen of the World was offering us _alcohol_?

I shook my head. "Coffee would be fine."

Wufei sat beside me. "Tea, please."

Relena nodded and pressed a button. Yes, another damn button. A maid came swishing in and took our orders and then turned to Relena and asked her what she herself would be having.

"I'll have...a beer, please. It's been a long day." She raised an eyebrow at us. "Sure you won't change your minds? It is a shame to drink alone."

I almost burst out laughing. Me, drink beer with Relena? Well, there was a first time for everything. "Maybe I'll have a beer instead." I winked at the maid, and she blushed before turning to Wufei, who insisted that tea was fine for him while giving me a rather stern look.

I, of course, was not disturbed the slightest bit. Wufei didn't seem to understand that I'd been living with one of the meanest, creepiest guys on the planet for the past year.

Relena sat back before us and asked, "So, how much have you figured out already?"

I raised my eyebrows before speaking. "I must say, princess, you're just full of surprises today. But if you must know, we've put together quite a bit. Wufei, would you do the honors, or should I?"

Wufei grunted and eyed me distastefully. "I'll explain." He continued on to tell Relena exactly what we'd figured out. When he'd finished, our drinks had already arrived. I had to say, Relena sure had good taste in beer.

She smiled at us as she sipped at her glass. "I see you've figured out quite a lot. Well done."

I shrugged and grinned at her. "Hey, when you have as much spare time on your hands as we do, you're bound to develop some sort of hobby."

Relena smiled again. "I see. Well, yes, you're correct, I was the one that was backing the Chosen. We'd been having severe problems with the vampires in the area, courtesy of one in particular – Ubithe."

"Ah, yes, Ubithe." I sat back and took another gulp of my beer. "He's really been stirring up a lot of sh...tuff," I finished ungracefully. "He's attacked us once and sent out others to attack us again. Really doesn't seem to want to give up, this guy."

"I know. You see...I'm in close contact with one of their kind," she said, pausing for a moment. "He's not with them."

"He's one of the good guys?" I asked warily. "That's a little weird."

"Can he help us?" Wufei asked.

Relena raised her eyebrows at us. "He may be able to, but I don't think you'd consider him one of the 'good guys'. You see...he's Milliardo Peacecraft."

I almost choked on my beer. "Zechs?!" I asked incredulously. "Zechs Marquise? You're kidding, right?"

She shook her head. "I'm afraid not."

"I thought he was your brother! Are you telling us that he's some ancient vampire too?"

"He _is_ my brother." She played her finger idly around the top of her glass as she spoke. "He was only taken about a year ago...by Ubithe himself."

"This Ubithe guy...wasn't he one of the Chosen way back when? What the hell is his story?"

Relena smiled bitterly. "He was...but he was taken and made into a vampire. I'm sure you've noticed his strange disappearance from the history books at one point. That's the reason. After that, it appears he began to think differently about vampires. He thought that they were being treated unfairly."

"But why resurface now?" I asked. "He's had so much time...why now?"

Relena took another sip of her beverage. "Because in the middle of all this war, he's hoping that the people will be distracted from what he's planning to do."

"And what is that, exactly?" Wufei asked.

Relena smiled. "The one part you couldn't work out, I suppose. Well, it took us a while, but we think that he's trying to put vampires out into the open. Create equality for them."

I scoffed. "But no one even believes they exist – and right now is a _really_ bad time. No one will accept them peacefully, especially in war-time."

Relena nodded. "Ubithe is not looking for peace. He's looking for revenge on the world for all of the unfair treatment they've been subjected to. An honorable mission, I suppose, but he's hoping to obtain equality by rather dishonorable means."

"They don't just want equality," I mused out loud, "they want to be the stronger species."

"Exactly." She held a hand up. "But, the other vampires aren't following him as strongly. They realize that they'll be putting themselves in grave danger by doing so. They are actually remarkably peaceful creatures, taken out of context by all th myths and legends that have been circling over the past centuries." Her expression darkened. "Ubithe, however, is not. He is a merciless killing machine, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants."

"So the others are afraid of him," Wufei added thoughtfully.

Relena shifted slightly in her seat. "Many of them are. He's one of the most powerful of their kind in existence. Only a few others could stand up to him, and right now, they seem to have their hands full with different matters. I do know of one, however, that may be of assistance to you. I'll tell you more about them when the time is right."

I leaned forward. "So let's cut to the chase – how involved do we need to be, here?"

Relena looked at me quizzically. "I beg your pardon?"

I grinned and sat back. "Look, we're obviously not just shooting the breeze, here. You're telling us this for a reason. We had a little meeting with Windoran yesterday, and she seems to have it in her head that we're still helping the Chosen out. Now, from what you've told us, they're being shut down as we speak. So what gives? Are we helping them, or are we helping you?"

Relena licked he lips in thought and sat up straight. "I must admit, I haven't been completely honest with you this evening."

"Do tell." I leaned back. "So let's hear it."

"The Chosen is being shut down as an organization – that much is true. I am, however, keeping Miss Windoran and Colonel D'leur in close contact. They are acting as agents for me. The organization has fallen, but I have decided to take them on as sort of private investigators." She started to run her fingers around the rim of her glass once again. "I would also like your help on the matter. You seem to be capable of dealing with this danger." She raised a hand as Wufei opened his mouth to speak. "Please consider that refusing to help me would be unwise at this point, especially considering the name you've already made for yourselves amongst the vampires."

Wufei's mouth snapped shut and he leaned back, studying Relena's face.

I, of course, took this opportunity to open my big mouth. "So you still want our help. That's interesting to me, considering the limited information we've been receiving." I leaned back and any glimmer of happiness disappeared from my face. "If you want us to partner up with you, we have certain conditions.

"First of all, if we get called away for any reason, don't hold us responsible for anything that happens in our absence. We have a job to do. Secondly, threats will not help you win our trust. Third, remember that we don't work for you, so we owe you nothing. We're doing this out of consideration for the human race, and may choose to retreat for any reason we deem fair." At this point I leaned forward and grinned harshly at her. "Last, but not least...keep us in the loop. If you want us to help you, don't give us half the story. If we're doing this job, it's not under Windoran or D'leur or anyone else. We're treated as equals. So don't screw with us. It will piss us off, especially Wufei here." I winked at him. "He tends to rant on about justice and wet the bed and whatnot when he's stressed, and that just gets on Heero's nerves – and we all know what happens when Heero gets pissy..."

"Maxwell," Wufei growled through his teeth.

I ignored him and grinned at Relena. "You understand, of course."

She looked at me strangely, and I noticed that she seemed a little shocked. I guess she hadn't expected me to get so serious. Being the goofball really gives me an adantage sometimes. "I understand." She stood and I knew that our little meeting was over. "Please meet with Windoran tomorrow. I will be in contact with her later on tonight to discuss our arrangements."

She walked us back through the house and out to the front gate where the guards met us with our firearms and other assorted weapons. After we'd stashed them away, we shook Relena's hand and she bid us farewell as the gates closed heavily behind us.

On our way back to our truck, Wufei was completely silent. Then...

"Ow, Wufei! What the hell was that for?!" I rubbed my arm where he'd punched me, certain that there would be a big, fist-sized bruise there tomorrow.

He stalked off, leaving me behind. "I do _not_ wet the bed."

* * *

On the way back to the school, we were completely silent. I knew that Wufei wasn't really mad at me about that wetting-the-bed comment; he was used to my little remarks by now.

When we got back, we saw that we'd received a transmission from Quatre that said he would be meeting up with us again shortly. It seemed that Heero and Trowa needed to be paired up for a mission and Quatre would no longer be needed, so he was transferring to our school.

Wufei merely grunted and shut the laptop down after he'd read the message. Yes, our laptop. Really, it was mine, purchased with my funds from my little monthly allowance, but hey, I knew how to share. I didn't grow up in a church for nothing. Since leaving the safehouse, Wufei and I had decided that we would need one, and since Wufei had spent all his money on all the necessary crap, the responsibility fell on my good self. Of course, that meant that I'd be suffering from malnutrition for the next month, but hey, it was worth it.

Wufei sat down on his bed and took his hair tie out. It was kind of weird to see him like that, mostly because I wasn't used to it. It seemed to soften his appearance little, making him look far less severe.

"So, good ol' Q-man is coming back to us." I leaned back on my bed and folded my hands behind my head. "Sounds like fun."

Wufei snorted. "Babysitting the two of you is far from fun."

I put on a fake pout. "Aw, we're not that bad, Wu-baby."

He raised an eyebrow at me eloquently. "Not if you forget about the drinking binges and the whining and the complaining, the sarcastic remarks, the mean pranks, the - "

"Okay, geez. I said we're not _that_ bad. I didn't say we were saints." I sighed. "So, what's the plan for tomorrow?"

"You know what we're doing tomorrow."

I rolled my eyes. "I know. Nine o'clock. Jesus, you'd think they'd pick any day but Sunday to screw up for us. Don't these people ever sleep?"

"Probably not." Wufei had his eyes closed and was leaning against the headboard of the bed with a strangely serene expression on his face. "What's the plan?"

I shrugged. "We just show up. Didn't Windoran say something about a progress report?"

"Yes." Wufei cracked his eyes opened. "She was rather unspecific, however."

I nodded. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Not much to report, really. I say we just show up tomorrow and tell her what's been up lately." I thought of something and sat up straight. "Hey, Wu?"

"What?"

"You know, Relena wasn't at all what I expected tonight."

"You should know better than anyone that people aren't always as they appear."

"Yeah, I guess so." I leaned back again. "I mean, she was...well, she was cool. Not all snotty and self-righteous." I turned onto my side. "And Zechs being a vampire? That was weird."

"A little," Wufei agreed. "Everything is weird."

"Do you think Relena will be there tomorrow?"

"I don't know."

"Why would she get invovled in all of this? I mean, it's not like people don't die every day. Why pick on this one guy? I'm surprised she even got wind of it."

"Well, Zechs is her brother. He probably told her about it."

"Maybe." I licked my lips thoughtfully. "You know, she didn't say a word about Heero tonight. I thought she was all head-over-heels and all that junk."

"Maybe she changed her mind." Wufei was starting to sound grumpy. Aw. It was someone's bedtime.

I shrugged and flipped the light off before slipping under the covers. "Maybe she's reazlied just what she'd be getting into."

"Oh?" Wufei interjected with an air of interest.

"Well, yeah. I mean, he's always saying that he's going to kill her, so maybe that just got old." I grinned to myself. "Romance has been known to die, my friend. Maybe he's not saying sweet stuff like that to her anymore."

Wufei snorted. "Yes, that must be it."

"No, seriously," I persisted. "Why didn't she ask about him?"

"I don't know, Duo." Now Wufei was sounding impatient. "But I want to get some sleep tonight, so could we cut the conversation short? We have all afternoon to discuss this and more besides."

I sighed. "Alright. G'nite man."

* * *

When I woke up the next day, I seriously wished I was dead.

"This is going to suck, man," I grumbled as I put my feet on the rigid industrial carpet. I really didn't understand why schools had to be so stingy when it came to flooring. Huh. Maybe I missed sleeping on concrete. Jail cell, anyone?

"It's going to be fine, as long as you don't screw everything up for us."

There was a soft knock at the door, and I looked at Wufei, surprised. Who the hell would be coming to see us this early on a Sunday?

I opened the door cautiously...

"Duo!" Quatre came bursting through the door with a grin the size of the Grand Canyon on his face.

I raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing here? We only got your transmission last night!"

He winked at me. "I got a little help from one of my sisters."

I sighed. "Private jet?"

"Helicopter." He beamed at me. "Sorry if I woke you. I just couldn't wait to get back to see you guys again."

I smirked and crossed my arms. "Let me guess, zero-one and zero-three are zero-fun?"

He grinned back at me. "You could say that." He glanced around the room quickly before resuming the conversation. "So...what are you guys doing today?"

Wufei stood up and I was a little surprised to see that he'd already showered and was fully dressed. Stupid morning people. "We have a meeting with Windoran."

Quatre's look of excitement quickly faded from his face. "What about?"

I shook my head. "You've missed out on a lot, Q-man. Wufei, why don't you fill him in while I grab a quick shower. I get the feeling that the walking corpses might actually care what _I_ smell like." I grabbed my towel off my bed and strolled into the bathroom.

I turned on the water and stepped inside to the warm spray, letting it wash over me. Suddenly...

"Wufei! You used all the hot water, you bastard!" The shock of cold almost brought me to my knees and it was all I could do to not scream in one high, continuous note of frustration.

He stuck his head inside the door while I stuck my head out from behind the shower curtain.

"Payback's a bitch, isn't it?" He closed the door just before a well-aimed shampoo bottle struck the space his head had been occupying just moments earlier.

Today was _really_ going to suck.


	15. The Perks of Old Age

Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing.

Author's Note: Sorry this took so long to get posted – I was really struggling with the storyline and couldn't figure out where I wanted this to go. Hopefully I'm steering it into at least a very mildly interesting direction. Let me know what you think.

**Pushing My Luck**

**Chapter Fifteen**

_Tap, tap, tap. _

The sound of a pencil hitting against the table echoed throughout the large conference room we were in. I had to say, the room was nice, but I was getting really sick of seeing the same people in the same setting.

A sharp glare from Wufei caused me to stop tapping the pencil across the glossy surface. I didn't really feel like getting on his nerves...not yet, anyway. I'd get him back for the cold shower later. Placing glad wrap over the toilet seat souded like a good way to accomplish that.

We'd managed to get through the first part of the meeting and our report on our vampire-killing progress without anyone getting shot, so it was actually going pretty well. Windoran and Anthony had taken a little break outside the room, which left the three of us to wonder what the hell they were talking about.

"Should have brought a deck of cards," I muttered under my breath. "Or fireworks."

Quatre was looking a little on the pale side this morning – his usual cheerfulness was hidden away, and he seemed to be looking forward to the end of our little meeting. I didn't blame him. While calmer than usual, the morning's events had been more than just a little nerve-racking.

At the beginning of the morning, we'd all traipsed up to the Schbeiker Law building and gone inside. After handing the card to the guard as instructed, we'd been taken upstairs and led into a conference room, where we waited for a full fifteen minutes before our hosts decided to make an appearance. I was suddenly wondering what the hell we were so worried about; it seemed that punctuality wasn't as important to the Colonel and the she-beast as we'd thought.

So far, they seemed to be satisfied with the number of vampires we'd killed. Goody. That meant that we were off the hit list. They still seemed to find it interesting that we hadn't actually gone and looked for any of them – we'd only killed the ones that had come to us – and had thought it a good idea to comment on that.

Bad idea.

That had gotten Wufei's dander up, and he'd started ranting about how we weren't stupid enough to go out and look for these beasts, and that they were to stupid to expect us to.

Another bad idea.

Windoran had become nothing short of a bitch at this point and savagely pointed out that we didn't seem to have the cajones to do the job. I protested by saying that she had an advantage, as her cajones were much bigger and higher up than ours.

Stupid idea.

Anthony had eventually had to call a halt to the bickering, and after he'd done so, he'd continued to inform us that we had done just fine, and had called Windoran outside to take a recess as I sniggered and muttered something like, "Oooh...you're in trouble," in a sing-song voice.

She had then proceeded to kick my chair so hard that it had spun at least ninety degrees. Wufei and Quatre had leaped up simultaneously, the former to fight, the latter to prevent such an occurrance.

It had ended with Anthony ushering Windoran outside and requesting that we remain seated.

Wufei shot me a glare and I rolled my eyes. "What, Wu-man?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You just don't know when to shut up, do you?"

I shrugged and leaned back to stare at the ceiling. "You're the one who called them stupid."

He grunted and turned his gaze back toward the table. "I was telling the truth. That's different. You were provoking them."

I snorted. "Right. That's just so different."

"Neither of you are helping things," Quatre said, startling both Wufei and me out of our glaring contest. "Just be polite and calm and we'll be out of here before you know it."

I chuckled and looked at Quatre and then back at Wufei. "So naïve."

Wufei nodded. "Apparently so."

Quatre's eyebrows knit together. "Really? Do any of you attend corporate business meetings on a daily basis? Which one of you has a large firm to manage _and_ a war to fight? None of you? Then I guess I know a little more than either of you about how this works."

I shrugged defensively. "Hey, Quat, you know we're just trying to get your goat."

He nodded. "Yeah, and it's working."

I sighed. "Geez, sorry. Don't get your panties in a bunch."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry...I just don't have a lot of patience right now. I'm tired." He rubbed his face with his hands.

I didn't really have anything to say to that. We all got tired at some point, and every time we did, we found out new things about ourselves and each other. Like how I became withdrawn and unusually quiet, and then more and more talkative as time progressed, before ultimately becoming extremely cranky and solitary. Heero apparently became more sociable when he was tired and seemed to crave Dr. Pepper, which was weird, and Wufei read a lot and drank only sparkling lemon water and ate unsalted peanuts when he was exhausted. Trowa was a little more subtle than the others, but I still noticed the way he would stuff something away every time we walked in the room after a long mission, and after a while, I had taken it upon myself to investigate; who knew that Trowa wrote poetry?

Anyway, this seemed to be Quatre's ultimate grumpy mood. Of course, I could not leave well enough alone; it's never really been one of my good qualities.

"So...you have your grumpy-pants on today, I take it."

He raised an eyebrow at me warningly before going back to staring at the table top.

At that moment, the doors opened, and Windoran and Anthoy re-entered the room. Windoran looked sulky, and Anthony had the usual serene expression plastered on his face. Oooh...someone had been reprimanded.

I leaned back in my chair and twirled my pencil between my fingers. "So, now what?"

Anthony looked at me, eyebrows raised, before speaking. "It seems we must infiltrate their kind before we can take any action."

I shook my head. "If one of us has to become a vampire, I'm going to become a lot less enthusiastic and co-operative."

"No, that's not it at all," Anthony said calmly. "We have an ally that is willing to help us. You will be meeting them at the end of the meeting."

"A vampire?" I asked skeptically.

"Yes."

"Aren't they supposed to avoid the light? I mean, I'm no expert, but my knowledge of vampires is rather wide, being compiled from all those great, late-night B-movies."

The corner of Anthony's mouth twitched, and I could have sworn he was trying not to smile. "Some vampires need not avoid the light."

"One of the perks of old age?"

"Yes."

I clapped my hands together and decided to drop the matter. It was getting a little weird. "Great. So what else do we need to discuss?"

"Your payment."

Now _that_ got my attention. I sat up straight in my chair and saw in my peripheral vision that Wufei and Quatre had done the same. "What do you mean, payment? I thought this was volunteer work we were doing – at the least, some sort of punishment for being such smart asses."

"We were hoping you'd see it as such," Windoran snarled as Anthony held a hand out toward her, ceasing any further speech on her part. Classic good-cop/bad-cop. Gotta love it.

Anthony spoke to us sternly. "Your payment will be negotiated with you by Relena Peacecraft when the mission is complete. Until that point, anything you need to complete your part in this will be paid for by this organization."

I shrugged. "Two people doesn't seem like much of an organization."

I could have sworn that Anthony's hand began to clench into a fist, but he stilled the movement as he regained his calm. Looked like I'd hit a sore spot with him. "That is the offer," he finished as if he'd never even heard me speak.

I shrugged and looked at the guys. Wufei gave me a pointed look, and Quatre, after glancing at Wufei, nodded slightly. "You know, to be honest, being employed by you guys isn't the most tempting offer we've ever had." I leaned forward. "We can't be bought or employed. Being stuck under someone's thumb isn't really an appealing idea at this point. Besides, it's personal now, and it doesn't seem fair to have the organization pay for all of our personal wars."

Wufei jumped in at this point. "We'll still co-operate, of course..."

"We just aren't going to be your little minions," Quatre interjected. I had to hold back a laugh; I didn't think I'd ever heard Quatre talk like that before.

I crossed my arms over the table. "We'll help you when we can, but we're not going to be joining your little club any time soon."

Windoran was seething by this point, and Anthony looked a little shocked himself. I smirked when I saw this; I guess they hadn't expected a bunch of teenage boys to pass up the chance to kick ass and earn money at the same time.

"How very brave of you," Anthony said, trying to hide his surprise.

I shrugged. "We're anything but. We just prefer to fly solo. All we want in exchange for our help is a little bit of yours. No money, no fancy cars, no bitches, no bling. I don't know if I speak for the other guys, here, but please, don't pimp my life in order to get what you want."

Anthony paused for a moment before responding in a tired voice. "Very well, then. No payment. We are, however, more than willing to co-operate with you, as long as you don't hinder us."

I nodded. "That's all we want."

There was a sharp rap on the door, and Anthony rose to open it. "That must be our guest...the vampire that will be helping us through all of this." His hand turned the doorknob and the door swung open...

"Jesus friggin' Christ," I whispered, shocked beyond belief.

It was Lady Une.

By the looks on the other guys' faces, I could see that they were just as surprised as I was. I had to admit, seeing one of our greatest enemies standing before us was pretty damn disconcerting.

I had to bite down what would have been a rather rude, "What the hell are _you_ doing here?" and try to compose my thoughts before speaking. I really hadn't been expecting this.

However, before I could think of anything mildly intelligent to say, she spoke up in a firm voice. "Maxwell, Winner, Chang...it's nice to see that you're all so involved." She sat down gracefully and laid her hands flat on the table. "Colonel, as always, it is a delight to see that you are well." Her gaze lingered over Windoran for a moment before she gave a curt nod in lieu of a proper greeting. The nod was returned, and I found myself fascinated by the fact that those two obviously didn't get along at all.

"Well," Anthony began, successfully drawing all attention to his person, "I believe that we can get started on the rest of the arrangements." He smiled tightly. "Of course, that means that you'll all have to put aside your differences until the matter at hand is resolved. I trust that will not be too difficult."

"You mean, of course, the war, Colonel?" Une asked briskly.

"But, of course."

I looked over at Wufei and Quatre and saw that they were as tense as I was. This was a pretty damn unexpected twist, even for us Gundam pilots.

Quatre spoke first. "We are willing to put our differences aside for now."

Wufei jumped in at this point. "The battlefield will, of course, be quite a different matter."

"Absolutely," Une responded.

I licked my lips thoughtfully. "You say that like it's going to be easy."

She looked directly at me, her light brown eyes almost piercing through my skull. I didn't think I'd ever had someone look at me like that before, not even Heero. "I understand the level of difficulty involved completely, Mr. Maxwell." Her gaze flicked over to the faces of the other pilots who nodded stiffly, doing their best not to show exactly how disconcerted they were by Une's unwavering gaze.

Once she was satisfied with our responses and discomfort, she turned back to Anthony. "There is a plan unfurling among our kind. Many of us are following in fear, while others are being forced into hiding. Ubithe is, by far, the most powerful of our kind in existence. I believe that he would outrank even Ulisses, if the latter were alive today to test his skill."

Anthony's eyebrows shot up in mild surprise. "Is that so?"

A curt nod was the response. "He does have some radical followers to do his bidding, but they are nothing more than mere pawns, to be prosecuted upon his death." She crossed her legs. "Assuming, of course, that we are successful."

At this point, I saw fit to interject with a couple of questions. "Who's this Ulisses guy you're talking about?"

All eyes were turned toward me, some questioning, others disbelieving. I shrugged. Hell, I was used to being uninformed by now.

"Ulisses was one of the most powerful vampires ever to walk the Earth – the most powerful, some say." Une folded her hands across the glossy table top. "He commanded quite a following and attempted to carry out a mission that would have ended in disaster. You see, he was bent on world destruction and almost succeeded; but on March 11th, 1708, he was eliminated by nothing more than a farmer guarding his land agaist intruders, oblivious to the fact that any other beings existed. Ulisses was killed by a single shotgun wound to the head. Remarkable, considering the fact that the farmer was drunk and had aimed to miss."

"How do you know this?" I asked warily.

"I was there when it happened."

"So that would make you - "

"Much older than I appear, yes," she finished for me. "Older than Ubithe...older than Ulisses, who was born not one year before Christ himself."

I sat back, astonished. "So how is it that you can't stop Ubithe by yourself?"

She smiled grimly. "Ubithe has taken several measures to increase his power to a point that would have taken many of us several centuries to reach. I am a strong believer in keeping my power pure – not gaining it through others. My power has progressed naturally...meaning that I am behind Ubithe."

"So there's more than one way to gain power from another vampire?" Quatre asked, seemingly interested.

Une nodded. "Yes. Suicide is not the only means of passing on that which you possess to another."

I sat back and cracked my neck. "So what's this big thing that's going down? Some kind of publicity stunt to get the world's attention?"

Une shot a pointed look at Anthony, who shrugged. "They spoke with the Princess yesterday."

"Ah." Une looked back at us sharply. "Ubithe doesn't seem to understand that our society is better kept a secret...at least for now."

"Suppress any minority and the tension increases," I mused softly, recalling that which Dr. G had once told me.

"That's correct, Mr. Maxwell." Une leaned back in her chair and regarded me silently for a moment. "How willing are you to participate in this? After all, it seems to be something between vampires alone. What inclines you to involve yourselves?"

I shrugged and looked at Wufei and Quatre. "They inclined us. They came into our lives and starting screwing everything up for us. They know who we are and where we hide, and being pilots with a mission to accomplish, you can bet your ass that we'll remove any threat that presents itself." I sat back, rather proud of myself.

"Crudely but effectively put. I see your position quite clearly." Une glanced at Anthony, who nodded.

"As you said, there is an event planned to get the world's attention," Anthony began, taking over the conversation. "One of the colonies is to be taken over – held hostage, really – and morbidly reduced into one of their domains. They have suits, they have arms, and they're prepared to use all of their force to achieve that goal. It's set to happen in a month's time. We would like your help in fighting them. We hear that they're to use mobile suits to infiltrate the colony."

I raised an eyebrow. "And you want us to participate in this fight?"

"Absolutely."

Something niggled in the back of my mind. "Which colony?"

"The L2 cluster."

I felt my heart drop to the pit of my stomach like a stone, tasted fear on the back of my tongue – not my colony.

I'd been fighting so long and for so many different causes that I could not recall them all; I knew only that the same pictures of L2 plagued me deep into the night, motivating me to fight so that no one, no child would ever have to suffer as I had. Now, my worst nightmare was going to come true, and L2 would be ripped apart again in war.

I think Wufei saw past the temporary mask I was using to hide my surprise and into my head, because when he spoke, he seemed to be aiming his words at me. "We'll have to take this under careful consideration," his gaze lingered toward me as he continued, "but we are also not declining the opportunity to fight."

I nodded grinly and stood. Suddenly, I wanted to be as far away as possible from that conference room, out in the sunlight where the world was just a little clearer. "Thanks for your time. We'll take all this back to the other pilots and let you know what we decide after our little pow-wow."

"Excellent." Anthony stood and shook our hands as Windoran nodded grimly.

Une bowed slightly and refused my hand when I offered it. "Excuse me. I don't mean to be rude, but there are certain codes of conduct for my kind that are never to be violated."

I nodded back. "Nice to meet you." My eyes flicked over to Anthony. "We'll be in contact."

Out on the street, Wufei and Quatre glanced at me a little nervously. "So, what's the plan?" Quatre asked.

I shrugged, not really in the mood to talk. "When Heero and Trowa get back, we'll talk it over."

"Are you okay with this, Duo?"

I plastered a smile on my face; if I didn't act okay, Quatre would bombard me with questions and try to get me to open up – something I definitely wasn't up to today. "I'm fine. Just a little tired, that's all."

"Hm." He nodded and fell silent, obviously sensing that it would be a bad idea to force the conversation any further.

I was so busy staring at my feet that I didn't notice someone dart out in front of me, and I just barely avoided colliding with whoever it was. Looking up, I was unable to mask my surprise as to who it was.

"Hilde?"

"I have information," she said briskly. "We can talk back at your school."

With that, she motioned us toward a black sedan waiting next to the sidewalk and ushered us inside.

Another goddamn meeting. Crap.


End file.
